GROUP TAKES DRUG FIGHT STATEWIDE

A Santa Clarita-based nonprofit is on the front line of the statewide
battle against drugs, according to the association's executive director.

The California Narcotics Officers' Association helps law enforcement
officials and prosecutors enforce California's drug laws while
lobbying state legislators to pass even more stringent drug laws,
said Joe Stewart, executive director.

The association trains personnel from nearly all of the state's
law-enforcement agencies in drug-abuse recognition,
undercover-officer safety, search-warrant preparation and drug-lab
laboratory investigation, Stewart said.

The association is supported by member donations and by tuition paid
by law-enforcement agencies for its programs, he said.

Before the California Narcotics Officers' Association was founded,
two informal groups concerned about drug-law enforcement were meeting
in homes of law enforcement officers throughout the state as far back
as the 1950s, Stewart said.

"In the early days, it was marijuana that dominated Northern
California - specifically San Francisco," Stewart said. "(In Southern
California) you had border drugs like cocaine and chemical-based
drugs like LSD."

The drug trade sent Bay Area marijuana to Southern California, while
cocaine and LSD flowed north. The need arose to have a state
narcotics officers' association so that local law enforcement
agencies could share tips on how to recognize the effects of those
drugs, as well as battle them, Stewart said.

The California Narcotics Officers' Association was founded in 1964.
Past association president Bob Hussey moved the headquarters to Santa
Clarita in the 1970s.

"The organization started humbly to provide training and it's grown
to more than 7,000 members," said Gary Schram, assistant chief,
bureau of investigations, in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office.

The Narcotics Officers' Association provides more than 150,000 hours
of training annually to more than 7,000 members, Stewart said.

The training program provided by the Narcotics Officers' Association
that Stewart is most proud of is the Drug Recognition Education
class. The class is Peace Officer Standards Training certified, which
qualifies the graduates as experts at recognizing the influence of
drugs, Stewart said.

"When officers who have gone through the drug-recognition training
testify in court, they do so as qualified experts," he said.

However, the Narcotics Officers' Association does more than train
law-enforcement personnel on how to fight the statewide war on drugs,
Stewart said. The association employs John Lovell, a registered
lobbyist who tries to persuade California legislators to toughen drug laws.

"You are talking to legislators about the nature of the drug
problem," said Lovell. He gathered legislative support for a recently
passed a law to require a prescription to possess pseudoephedrine,
common in cold remedies and one of the building blocks of the street
drug methamphetamine.

"(The CNOA) was able to get legislators to vote for the bill because
we brought in a district attorney from Lincoln County, Ore., to
testify on the dangers of methamphetamine," he said.

The lobbying is part of the Narcotics Officers Association's battle
against what Stewart describes as a cultural acceptance of drug use.
"Society has become desensitized to drug use," Stewart said.

Society's softer stance on drugs translates into what he describes as
decriminalization through the medical marijuana program and soft
penalties for simple possession, Stewart said. A person in California
can possess up to one ounce of pot and the stiffest penalty is $500.

Stewart finds this trend of drug decriminalization dangerous.

"Marijuana is a gateway drug," he said. "We have to make our stand somewhere."