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30 October 2001 - The San Diego Union-Tribune
Officials: Modest reduction in meth problems

By Jo Moreland

SAN DIEGO – The latest annual report by San Diego County's Methamphetamine Strike Force indicates the county is making some headway against the popular drug.

There were fewer meth lab seizures last year in the county, and for the third year in a row the percentage of adults arrested who test positive for the drug has declined, strike force spokesman Rob Hall said Monday.

Hall said the pervasive meth problem isn't going away. Chemicals used to make meth were found when a huge ecstasy drug lab was seized earlier this month in Escondido, officials noted.

"There were actually more meth deaths last year than the previous year," said Hall. "This is still 13 percent fewer deaths than 1995, when we started tracking this, but it was adjusted for population – which gives you an idea of how prevalent meth still is. The fact is, there's still a lot of meth available in San Diego County."

According to the report, there were 150 meth deaths in 1995 and 140 last year – 30 percent more than the 108 deaths in 1999. "It's the third year in a row we've seen a decline in arrestees testing positive for meth," Hall said.

The report says that last year 28 percent of adults arrested and jailed in the county tested positive for meth. That's the lowest since the task force was formed in 1996. Positive meth tests for juveniles arrested has gone up and down, but it was 11 percent in 1995 and again last year, according to the report.

From 1999's peak of 62 meth lab seizures during the last five years in the county, the report says, there were 33 last year. Officials have said that the labs being found in San Diego County are smaller than in other counties. However, the report also notes that county cleanup of labs has gone from a low of 13 in 1997 to 47 last year.

Sheriff's deputies in Vista and San Diego police started working this year with stores to train clerks to recognize when someone may be buying supplies for a drug lab. Vista deputies have already trained more than 150 clerks.

The county's Drug Endangered Children Project, based in North County, didn't receive an increase for countywide expansion. Officials said the strike force will try to get money elsewhere to expand the project next year.