PUBLIC SERVICE ADS TARGET DRUG LABS

The State Messages Are Meant To Help Educate Central Valley Residents About
The Dangers Of Meth

SACRAMENTO -- The war against methamphetamine will hit the airways soon in
the Central Valley in messages intended to inform the public and enlist its
help.

Gov. Gray Davis said the state needs to develop zero tolerance for meth
production as he announced the series of public service announcements
Wednesday.

"Money by itself is not going to win the battle of methamphetamine," Davis
said. "We need to get more information to the general public and more
information from the general public."

The television spots, which will start this month in Kern, Fresno,
Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tulare counties, seek to educate
people about the dangers of the drug and how to help police identify meth
labs and distributors. The ads ask tipsters to call a toll-free number,
866-METH-LAB (638-4522).

One of the ads, which depicts a child, describes the danger posed by toxic
meth ingredients. Children are present in the homes of about 30 percent of
labs raided, Davis said.

About 80 percent of all meth manufactured in the United States comes from
California, much of it from the Central Valley, according to law
enforcement statistics.

The state has spent about $30 million for extra personnel and equipment to
fight production of methamphetamine, Davis said. Another $30 million has
been earmarked in the next two years, including $250,000 for the public
education campaign.

California also will get four new Drug Enforcement Agency agents to help
replace six FBI agents who were reassigned from the state's anti- meth task
force after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Rep. Cal Dooley, D-Visalia, said.

Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson, a former
congressional colleague of Dooley's, said the agents would be added within
a month.