POWERFUL DRUG MARCHING A DESTRUCTIVE PATH THROUGH COUNTY

In local shelters and hospital nurseries, newborns exposed to
methamphetamine clench their bodies and cry, a microcosm of Ventura
County families devastated by the drug.

In crowded county courtrooms, dockets are clogged with meth users who
steal cars and credit cards, beat their spouses, neglect their children.

And at high school campuses countywide, hundreds of teenagers use
methamphetamine. Many are addicted.

Sometimes called the poor man's cocaine, the drug has exploded in
popularity. Methamphetamine is now the No. 1 drug problem in Ventura
County, according to law enforcement and public health experts,
affecting wealthy as well as poor families, private businesses and
taxpayers.

"When people think of methamphetamine they think of trailer parks,
they think of the ghettos, but that's not the case anymore," said
Gabriel Tobias, a probation officer with the county's juvenile drug
court. "You'll see it in the middle class and you'll see it in the
upper class. It's not discriminating. It's everywhere."

Officials say publicly funded clinics can't keep up with the crush of
people seeking treatment for meth addiction, with the number nearly
tripling in a decade. Detectives are swamped trailing the property
crimes committed by meth abusers looking for ways to fund their
$300-a-day habits. Businesses from colleges to car dealerships are
losing employees and paying higher insurance rates.

Methamphetamine is known as crystal, crank and ice. The stimulant can
be smoked, injected or snorted, and is commonly sold in powder form
or as crystals that resemble rock candy.

Most of the meth in Ventura County is manufactured in Mexico and
distributed by a network of Los Angeles dealers, said Michael Quinn,
resident agent in charge of the Ventura County office for the federal
Drug Enforcement Administration.

Highway 101 and Highway 126 are major routes for the
drug.

The DEA describes meth as the top illegal drug in Ventura County, the
state and the country.

Unlike any other drug, meth fuels a frantic level of criminal
behavior, said Ron Carpenter, a senior prosecutor assigned to narcotics.

"Heroin users were known to commit a large percentage of residential
burglaries. Once they get that out of the way, they don't get out too
much. A person on meth makes 140 calls a day putting several
different scams together," said Carpenter, who knows of teachers and
attorneys with telltale burns on their fingers from holding hot glass
meth pipes.

For years, California has been a hotbed for the drug, which is now
invading communities from coast to coast. But little has been done to
address the epidemic other than imprisoning the addicts, said Dr.
Richard Rawson, a UCLA researcher who monitors the state's drug
diversion effort.

"California has the worst meth problem in the country and has had it
for the longest," Rawson said. "In the '90s, meth spread to Ventura
and the San Joaquin Valley, and almost literally nothing was done."

In contrast, Montana has become the bellwether state for solutions.
The rate of meth use there was the same as Ventura County's before
the rural state launched a massive prevention and treatment campaign
(see methproject.com). Montana has also built two prisons
exclusively for meth users that offer treatment.

After two years, Montana reported a 45 percent decrease in teen meth
use, and meth-related crime dropped by half. Among adults, the
decline in use was even greater at 70 percent.

California plans to launch an anti-meth advertising campaign this
year aimed at teenagers, similar to Montana's.

In Ventura County, mental health and drug treatment specialists held
a conference last year to discuss prevention and treatment issues.
Supervisor Kathy Long has volunteered to head a task force of law
enforcement, health and other county departments.

The panel has not yet met, but Long is calling for a meeting by the
end of the year. A consultant will gather statistics before the task
force hammers out a strategy, she said.