Series: Meth In The Mother Lode (Part 1b)

METH CASES PUT POLICE, COURTS INTO OVERLOAD

Mother Lode courts are buried in methamphetamine-related cases.

Out of 5,994 criminal cases filed in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties last
year, more than three-quarters of them were related to meth, according to
statistics from both counties' district attorneys and public defenders'
offices.

"We are pushed to the breaking point, and a big part of that is meth," said
Tuolumne County District Attorney Donald Segerstrom. "And the numbers are
going up steadily."

Meth, once thought of as a Central Valley phenomena, has flooded the Mother
Lode in the past decade - affecting law enforcement in addition to
hospitals, social service agencies, schools and families.

Over the last 12 years, the number of drug labs busted by Calaveras County
narcotics agents has increased by 500 percent.

In 1993, three labs were found and destroyed. In 2003, 21 labs were found.

Calaveras County authorities last year busted only 10, but that reflects an
understaffed narcotics unit, not a diminished problem, officials said.

Between 2000 and last year, the Tuolumne Narcotics Team worked on 849 meth
cases resulting in 303 criminal convictions, 64 dismantled labs and 132
guns and knives seized. And 62 children were placed in the custody of Child
Welfare Services.

Scott Gross, one of three Calaveras County public defenders, said he sees
daily how meth destroys lives.

"It causes fights, people steal to support the habit, they have drastic and
aggressive behavior changes and anyone can make it," Gross said. "It leads
absolutely nowhere."

Millions of tax dollars are each year funneled to government agencies
nationally to care for children whose parents use and make the drug, to
clean up toxic waste from the manufacturing process and to put criminals
behind bars.

Methamphetamine has become the nation's leading drug problem, according to
a National Association of Counties survey released this month. The survey
questioned 500 sheriff's departments in 45 states.

Drug abuse costs California alone about $13.1 billion annually, according
to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

"Citizens need to understand that there is a huge connection between people
who use methamphetamine and crime," said Tuolumne County narcotics officer
Jim Mele.

"Ninety-nine and nine-tenths of the crime in the foothills - such as
thefts, assaults, burglaries, armed robberies, rapes, domestic violence,
sexual assault and murder - are done by people either under the influence
of the drug or committing the crimes to supply their habits," he said.

"I may be exaggerating on the 99 and 9/10ths, but not by much."

To help combat meth and meth-related crime, a three-county task force was
established in 1987 called ACTNET - Amador, Calaveras and Tuolumne
Narcotics Enforcement Team.

ACTNET dissolved in June 1995. But with state and federal grant money, the
Calaveras Narcotics Enforcement Unit and the Tuolumne Narcotics Team were
established separately in the two counties.

The Calaveras unit has a sergeant, a probation officer, two deputies and a
budget of $311,689, mostly used for fighting meth.

TNT - with a bulldog standing on a stick of dynamite as its logo - has one
sergeant, five investigators and an office manager to track paperwork and
statistics. TNT has an annual budget of $730,000 to fight drug crimes,
mostly meth and marijuana related.

According to statistics from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration,
about 8,000 meth labs were dismantled nationwide in 2003. California
produces 80 percent of the nation's methamphetamine.

In the Mother Lode, narcotics officers say that over the last few years
most of the meth labs they have found and destroyed were "personal use"
labs, not large ones.

"More and more traffic stops are being made where there is a box lab in the
car," Segerstrom said. "They aren't making much meth at a time, but they
are making it regularly and frequently.

"I see the social debris that methamphetamine can cause. People are
tattered, families are destroyed."