DRUG WARRIORS TOTE UP THE SCORE

The phrase "drug-endangered children" has entered the national
law-enforcement lexicon, thanks largely to the ravages of
methamphetamine abuse. Last Thursday (April 19), Butte County District
Attorney Mike Ramsey used graphic photographs to show local reporters
what the phrase really means. It wasn't pretty.

As Ramsey put it, "Meth takes the parental instinct right out of
parents."

The occasion was a press conference at the county Probation Department
called as part of the Butte Interagency Narcotics Task Force's release
of its annual report for 2006. In addition to Ramsey, Sheriff Perry
Reniff and all four of the police chiefs in the county attended, along
with BINTF personnel.

Besides catching drug traffickers, BINTF operates a program, in
cooperation with the county Children's Services Division, whose job is
to investigate and rescue drug-endangered children.

Case in point: a house visited recently as part of a parole and
arrest-warrant sweep in Oroville. There were four small children in
the house, ranging in age from 9 months to 4 years old.

Ramsey showed large blow-ups of photos taken inside the house, which
was cluttered and filthy beyond description. Cockroaches crawled over
unwashed dishes in the kitchen. At least one roach had found its way
to the baby's bottle in his crib. Bathroom walls were covered with
mold and mildew, and there were blue-green pellets of rat poison on
the floor. Ramsey noted it looked like candy. One child's pillow was
found on top of a gassed-up chainsaw, and exposed extension cords
presented an electrocution threat.

"One thing these pictures can't depict is the smell in the house,"
Ramsey said.

No drugs were found, but the parents were known drug abusers. They
were arrested for child endangerment, and the children were placed in
foster homes.

Fortunately, BINTF is finding fewer drug-endangered children these
days--169 were investigated in 2006, compared with 331 in 2004. Of
those investigated in 2006, 91 were detained in foster care. Most had
witnessed domestic violence; 13 had been physically abused and seven
sexually abused. Many had scars, head lice and/or decayed teeth, and
seven tested positive for tuberculosis.

The overall decrease in cases is to some extent because of turnover in
the DEC program, Ramsey said. Experienced personnel revolved out of
DEC in 2006, which is "good for law enforcement overall" because it
spreads their experience around, but at the same time fewer cases were
being investigated.

More significant, perhaps, the number of meth drug labs seized went
down, from 43 in 2002 to just 10 in 2006. Fewer labs means fewer
children exposed to the dangers they present, Ramsey said.

Curtis Parks, commander of BINTF's North County unit, in Chico,
explained that recent legislation making it harder to purchase the
cold medicines that contain certain necessary precursors such as
pseudoephedrine has resulted in fewer labs.

That doesn't mean there's less meth on the street, however. It's
"still the drug of choice" in Butte County, Parks said, explaining
that users prefer the crystal form, which they smoke. Nowadays,
instead of being manufactured locally, it's mostly smuggled in from
Mexico.

According to the 2006 report, meth "was involved in 60 percent of drug
arrests and 36 percent of the total arrests made by BINTF." Although
total arrest figures were down, from 506 in 2004 to 265 in 2006, the
task force did see a rise in the seizure of both cocaine and black-tar
heroin, especially in the Chico area.

Altogether, BINTF seized drugs valued at more than $2.7 million.
Interestingly, methamphetamine accounted for only $159,972 of that
total; marijuana was the biggest haul, value-wise, coming in at a
total of $2,333,125. Processed marijuana was valued at $540 per ounce,
for a total of $1,539,125, while the 397 pot plants seized were
valued, on average, at $2,000, for a total of $794,000.

Increasingly, speakers at the briefing said, BINTF's emphasis is on
education and getting drug users into treatment. Reniff noted that his
department was now doing job training in the jail, as well as offering
life-skills programs and education leading to the GDE.

Ramsey, asked about the impact of Governor Schwarzenegger's plan to
slash $25 million from the state budget for Proposition 36 drug
treatment programs, didn't mince words. The plan is "penny wise, pound
foolish," he said.

The governor has a serious and hugely expensive prison-overcrowding
problem, and drug treatment programs cut down on the number of people
going to prison, he explained.

Ramsey and Reniff both noted that Butte County has one of the best
Prop. 36 programs in the country, adding that its Drug Court is also a
model for counties nationwide, as is its DEC program.