EFFECTIVE DRUG CRACKDOWN REQUIRES TOUGHER LAWS

Methamphetamine - aka meth, speed, go-fast - is a chemical from hell
that must be culled from American society before it kills our nation.

Illegal drugs in general, such as heroin, cocaine and meth, have
taken America to a place it never intended to visit.

When I joined the Riverside County district attorney's office in
1987, I recall my then-boss, Supervising Deputy District Attorney
Dave Downing, noting "the Coachella Valley would be a quiet place
without dope or alcohol."

What he was referring to was the criminal justice system. As I
quickly learned, most of the cases we handled were related in some
fashion to the usage or abuse of illegal drugs, alcohol or both.

This included possession of illegal drugs for personal use,
possession of them for sale, sale of those drugs, their
transportation, or doing other illegal acts under the individual or
combined influence of alcohol or drugs.

When I was deputy-in-charge of the Major Narcotic Violator Program
for the county's eastern division, my job was to prosecute those who
illegally profited from the sale, transportation, cultivation or
manufacturing of any of the major drugs the California Health and
Safety Code prohibits.

During that tour of duty, I learned the California Legislature either
doesn't understand or care about marijuana and methamphetamine.

Legal ambiguities As to marijuana, our state lawmakers have a split
personality.

They continue to declare marijuana dangerous enough to mandate peace
officers stand in harm's way through an annual eradication program
choreographed by the state Department of Justice, as well as ongoing
search-warrant service.

Yet Sacramento refuses to add any of the enhancements that allow
prosecutors to bolster possible prison sentences that pertain to
meth, coke or heroin. It's time to fish or cut bait. We must stop
putting the lives of dope cops in danger for a drug that rarely
equates to a prison sentence.

Even worse is the lack of will vis-a-vis methamphetamine. If our
Legislature really cares about our winning the war on drugs, why does
possessing meth for sale carry a possible prison sentence that is the
same as the one for possessing it for personal use?

When I headed the Major Narcotic Violator Program, I prosecuted meth
cases that still make my hair stand on end. They included both
dealers and manufacturers that possessed illegal weapons such as
Thompson machine guns and grenade launchers.

One case required me to have a member of the sheriff's bomb squad
tell the jury exactly what the dangerous item was the defendant had
in his garage.

So much methamphetamine was being cooked in one of the cases I
prosecuted that the 8- and 10-year-old sons of the defendant's
girlfriend were both able to tell the narcotic officers how to cook
meth.

In another case, when knock-notice was announced at the front door, a
paranoid defendant jumped through his bedroom window into his dog
feces-filled back yard.

Good thing. One of the cops found the man's shorts on his bed. They
had his driver's license in one pocket and a loaded handgun in the
other.

Road to hell Chronic meth abuse eventually ends up messing up the
wiring in the user's head to the point where the person never comes
back to where they are supposed to be.

Addicts commit a shopping list of crimes to get the money to get
their dope. This includes "three strikes" offenses such as robbery
and burglary. Addicts also engage in shop-lifting, check fraud,
credit card fraud, identity theft, prostitution, auto theft and dope
selling, smuggling and manufacturing.

Frighteningly, if one tries to cook meth but doesn't know what he's
doing, this can lead to explosions, fires and the production of
mustard gas so lethal that you'll be dead before you can smell it. If
your next-door neighbor creates a stovetop lab, guess who may also
die when it goes up in flames?

Does speed kill? You better believe it. Does the Legislature get it?
I don't know. Let's ask them.

- - Reach Martin C. Brhel, Jr., a La Quinta resident and retired prosecutor
who is trust administrator for the Riverside Sheriffs' Association Legal
Defense Trust.