UTAH TASK FORCE CRACKED DOWN ON METH

Provo, Utah, was hit hard five years ago by the drug crystal meth.

Lieut. Dan Eggen of the Provo Police Department said the problem was out of
control in the community of 110,000, located 45 miles south of Salt Lake City.

RCMP Cpl. Laura Knox, however, points out that Sherwood Park and Provo are
like apples and oranges.

The two can't really be compared, she said, because the departments and
their approaches to policing are different.

In his community, Eggen said neighbourhood watch helped police crack down
on meth labs but a task force made up of officers from all the agencies
from 18 cities in Utah provided the most assistance.

Two years ago the task force busted 49 meth labs. For their size, cracking
down on almost one lab a week boosted the state's status to number one in
the nation for meth-lab busts. Last year the number of meth lab busts
reduced significantly to 12 or 13.

"All we do is work narcotics, and meth is by far our number one priority.
We make more of those cases than anything else," says Eggen who has been on
the task force for five years.

Eggen says meth is prevalent in Utah because for years people were using
cocaine and marijuana.

When meth came on the scene people were already addicted to drugs.

"Meth is almost the same as cocaine except it lasts longer and it's cheaper
and you don't have to wait for Juan Valdez to bring it from Venezuela or
Colombia."

Because Utah is a mostly rural state, Eggen said it's harder to find meth labs.

"You can go out in the boonies and make meth and nobody knows."

He recalls one case that was coined "the meth express" because dealers were
producing it out of a Pepsi truck.

"What are your chances (of catching them) unless you happen to see them do it."

He says the age of users ranges from as young as 12 to 40. He says it's
mostly males who use it but girls call it Jenny Crank - referring to the
drug as a weight loss method.

Eggen says treatment isn't always the most effective way of getting people
clean from meth.

"Treatment only helps so much. We find that when a family member commits
(them) to a treatment centre, it doesn't seem to work.

"What works is if we arrest them, they're put in jail and they're in jail
long enough to get off it.

"Because once they come down off it, they start to think normal again and
they actually have a better chance of not starting up again than those who
go in and say, 'Hey I have a problem, please help me.'"

Eggen says once in a while they find an addict who sincerely wants help but
by far the most effective way for addicts to come clean is if they go to
jail and dry out and then go into court-ordered counselling.

Knox said there haven't been enough cases in Sherwood Park to determine if
this method would be a deterrent or not.

"Our first option, always is treatment but if you're trafficking in it,
then I would assume you're going to get a jail sentence," she said.

Eggen says the only way to reduce or eliminate meth is through a task
force. He says education shouldn't be the only solution.

"It's really hard to talk to somebody when they're under the influence of
the drug already.

"You don't educate people who are already ahead of you. It may be education
helps the parents, maybe education helps the young people coming up and so
it has a tremendous part."

Eggen said for years they have had the DARE program and they haven't seen a
significant drop in the number of people using drugs.

"If we rate it on the success of education, you're losing."

Knox said enforcement and education go hand in hand. As a DARE officer for
the past six years, she says the program isn't quantitative so they can't
go back and measure how many kids they've saved. She says there is a lot of
testimony from kids saying the program has had a positive effect on their life.

"In this community and this area, the DARE program is working."