GROWING METH USE ON NAVAJO LAND BRINGS CALL FOR TRIBAL ACTION

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - With no law on the books to criminalize the
sale, possession or manufacture of methamphetamine on the Navajo
reservation here, the largest reservation in the country, officials
are fearing an explosion of the drug's use.

"We've seen more than a 100 percent increase in meth on the
reservation in the past five years," said Greg Adair, a 26-year
officer with the Navajo Nation police.

Under pressure from local and federal law enforcement officials, the
Navajo Nation Tribal Council raised the issue of criminalizing
methamphetamine during its summer meeting last year but was told that
it needed to include other controlled substances.

The matter was on the agenda for the winter meeting last month, but
the optimism of public health and law enforcement officials was
dashed when the session ended without the measure being passed.

By the time the measure came up for consideration, only 42 of the 88
tribal council representatives were still in attendance, 3 short of a
quorum. Larry Anderson, a council delegate from Fort Defiance, Ariz.,
and a co-sponsor of the legislation to criminalize the drug, said a
special session would be planned to address the measure.

The bill, which was introduced by Hope MacDonald-LoneTree, chairwoman
of the Navajo Nation's Public Safety Committee, would bring tribal
laws in line with state and federal statutes. The bill makes the
possession or sale of a controlled substance, including
methamphetamine, punishable with up to a year in tribal jail and a $5,000 fine.

"Right now we don't have anything to charge the person we find with
meth unless we go to the feds," said Greg Secatero, a criminal
investigator with the Navajo Nation police.

Paul Charlton, the United States attorney in Phoenix, said that under
current procedures, when a tribal law enforcement officer finds a
small amount of methamphetamine on a suspect, the drug is confiscated
and an F.B.I. agent from Flagstaff is called. The substance is sent
to a crime laboratory for identification, a process that one Navajo
Police officer said can take a month. If tests show it is
methamphetamine, the F.B.I. will issue an arrest warrant.

Some police officials believe the process is not worth the effort for
small amounts. Mr. Adair said that his officers have become
"creative" and arrested people on other offenses, but that the cases
are frequently dismissed in tribal court.

"Kids and young adults say, 'Hey, I can get away with this,' and the
drugs spread through the communities like wildfire," Mr. Adair said.

One officer said he recently had to free someone who had 14 ounces of
methamphetamine until the federal process took effect. "The legal
system has fueled the meth epidemic," Mr. Adair said.

Mr. Adair suspects the problem began proliferating on the reservation
about five years ago. He said it was not until the government
hospital in Tuba City begin to test victims and look for signs of
methamphetamine abuse did they realize the problem was progressing.
"We still don't have a handle on the exact amount of violent cases
unless the suspect is tested for meth," Mr. Adair said.

Mr. Adair said one incident that stuck in his mind involved the death
of a 19-year-old girl four years ago. The girl was stabbed 43 times
by her boyfriend, who was said to have been a methamphetamine user,
Mr. Adair said.

"That murder has always haunted us," he said.