METHAMPHETAMINE-RELATED CHARGES AROUND 30 PERCENT

For years, officials have estimated 90 percent of the people who go
through Flathead District Court are there on methamphetamine-related
charges. No one really knows where that figure originated or how
accurate it might have been during the peak years of meth-lab raids
and arrests around 2000 and 2001. But now, the figure is likely
closer to 30 percent.

On Thursday, 46 people were scheduled for felony criminal-case
hearings. Of them, about 15 had cases that seemed to directly or
indirectly involve methamphetamine.

Most of those 15 people were in court for charges of possession of
the drug. They were either entering pleas to the charge or were being
sentenced for it. A couple were charged with possession of the drug
with intent to sell.

The link to methamphetamine was more indirect in some cases. One
woman's felony charge of writing bad checks was reportedly motivated
by addiction. A man charged with forgery resorted to the crime to
feed his desire for methamphetamine, according to his attorney.

Others were found in violation of probation for other crimes by
testing positive for methamphetamine during urine tests or by being
found in physical possession of it.

Of the 89 residents in jail on one day this week, 12, or about 13.5
percent of them, were there on charges of drug possession, intent to
sell, or manufacture or distribution.

An informal scan of the inmates by a former member of the drug team
picked up another 19 names of people who are thought to be associated
with methamphetamine activity in the valley. Some are in jail
awaiting revocation of suspended or deferred sentences for drugs or
because they're accused of possessing drugs while they were on probation.

That puts the number of prisoners who at first blush are in jail
because of meth at about 27.5 percent -- in line with the percentage
who went through court Thursday.

While it's sometimes difficult to say with certainty if any given
inmate or defendant is in trouble because of methamphetamine, both
the jail population and the courtroom numbers indicate a percentage
far below the old 90-percent estimate.