METH REMAINS FAR MORE DEADLY DRUG PROBLEM

Official statistics about drug busts pose a devilish riddle.

Are big numbers the result of good police work or hard-working
law-breakers? Conversely, do low numbers reveal a drop in crime or
just that the bad guys are getting away with it?

Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko said this month's anti-marijuana
blitz netted more than 280,000 plants in two weeks -- an astonishing
number. That's 20 percent more plants than the authorities pulled up
in the county in all of 2006. Indeed, it's more than the cops found
in the entire states of Oregon and Washington last year.

We'll peg that one as both a job well done and a huge problem. Big
pot plantations in the national forests and other public lands have
gotten out of hand in the past few years, and the focused efforts to
reverse the trend are welcome.

On the other hand, the past few years' statistics on methamphetamine
reveal fewer labs busted and less of the drug seized. The Shasta
Interagency Narcotics Task Force found just one lab last year, down
from 17 in 2000.

Is that a win, however temporary, in the drug war? Or have the
manufacturers just grown cannier?

We'd like to think it's the first. We're certain, though, that law
enforcement cannot just declare victory and go home when it comes to
methamphetamine.

Nobody has any business turning Whiskeytown National Recreation Area
into his personal pot garden, and it's well worth pursuing those who
do. But methamphetamine remains a far more addictive drug than
marijuana, and it's far more destructive to both its users and those
around them.

A British study published Friday suggests a connection between heavy
marijuana use and an increased risk of psychosis. You don't need
careful scientific data-parsing to see the same link with meth.