WESTERN SKIES - June 18, 2005

*** RURAL METH ***

ERIC WHITNEY: We start our look at the drug culture in our region with a story on methamphetamine, or meth for short. The synthetic stimulant is much in the headlines in recent years as both an urban and rural scourge. There's high demand for it in the cities, and rural places are favored as locations for people who manufacture the drug in clandestine laboratories.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration says that in Colorado, two hundred and twenty-three meth labs were raided in Colorado last year. That's more than twice the number busted in 1999, but significantly less than the high mark of four hundred and fifty raids in 2002.

You can read a lot into those figures, but there's no disputing that fighting meth, and the drug war in general is straining the resources of law enforcement across the country.

Western Skies' Stephen Raher recently visited La Junta, to get some perspective on how small towns deal with the challenge of methamphetamine, and the questions it raises.

[sound of police radio]

STEPHEN RAHER: The police department in La Junta is a typical small-town law enforcement operation.

The city of seventy-five hundred people usually has three or four police officers on duty at a time. And while La Junta isn't crime free, it's not a hot spot for violent crime either. But, like police departments across the country, five years ago, officers in La Junta noticed a new trend.

GREG KIRKLAND: Back in August of 2000 it seems like is about when we really started to see an uprise in this. And some of the officers, including ourselves, started to realize there was more of that activity going on and we didn't really know what we wanted to do with it. We weren't trained in it, there wasn't anything really being offered in our area.

RAHER: Greg Kirkland is a lieutenant with the police department. The problem he's talking about is crystal methamphetamine. He's in charge of public education and officer training, concerning meth use and manufacturing.

KIRKLAND: We have lots of stuff in here, just kind of to keep us going. Most of the time we're out in the rural areas [fade under]

RAHER: Kirkland proudly gives a tour of the department's trailer of specialized equipment that responds to the one or two meth lab busts that occur each month. Because of the environmental hazards common at meth labs, the trailer is equipped with special safety equipment for officers, clean up supplies, and evidence collection materials. It's also stocked with toys and kids clothing, for when the police find children inside labs.

GARY ARMITAGE: I'm not sure exactly how many children we've taken out of the labs, but it's been several over the years.

RAHER: Gary Armitage is an expert in illegal drugs. He's the coordinator of the Sixteenth Judicial District's drug task force, which is run out of the local prosecutor's office. A former police chief, Armitage clearly loves his job. He gets to learn the intricacies of the rural drug world and go after drug dealers. He's also gotten to know the demographics of meth users in the Lower Arkansas Valley.

ARMITAGE: Right now, most of the people I deal with, are probably in their forties and fifties. You know, it's past, you know I hear people talk about well, when they were younger, they dabbled a little bit. Well, these people are in their fifties and it's way beyond dabbling. I mean, they're sick and they'll probably never get their lives straightened out.

RAHER: Armitage also says that most people who manufacture meth in the area make it for themselves and a few friends-not as a large-scale drug dealing operation. Even though it's surprisingly easy to make meth, labs run by amateurs produce dangerously impure versions of an already dangerous substance, according to Wade Kendall.

WADE KENDALL: And the thing that distinguishes methamphetamine is that little extra methyl group that comes off of the carbon chain [fade under]

RAHER: Kendall is the chief pharmacist at the Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center in La Junta. With all the dangers of meth, one might expect it to generate lots of visits to the emergency room, Kendall says that's not the case.

KENDALL: Very rarely are you going to see the overdose come in. If you do, they are really, really bad off at that point. What you normally see is somebody who's done a run of speed, and they get out to the end of it, and it produces sort of a psychosis. They're hearing things that aren't there, they're seeing things that aren't there, they're picking at themselves. Very rarely will that present itself to an ER. Usually, the people involved with that person, if they bring them into an ER, they get them out into a psychiatric setting.

RAHER: Kendall says he is worried about the prevalence in meth production in the area, but he doesn't see an immediate solution to the problem.

KENDALL: There were several labs around that the police have been picking up and breaking up, but you can't stop that. There's stuff in place to prevent, or hinder, the chemists from doing that. You're allotted X-number of tablets of Sudafed. They get by that. There's many ways of getting by that.

RAHER: Restricting access to meth ingredients, like the over-the-counter cold remedy Sudafed, has been a focus of the law enforcement community during the past three to four years. These new statutes, known as precursor laws, seem to have had some effect, according to many of the officers in La Junta. Meth lab busts have gone down during recent months, but Gary Armitage of the drug task force echoes the sentiments of many, when he says meth users will eventually find a way to get their fix.

ARMITAGE: I really think that probably the cooking is going to drop, I mean I don't think we're going to see as many meth cooks. I think we're going to see the same amount of meth, I mean meth users, they're just going to get it a different way. Because, you know, eventually the precursor laws are going to get better and better enforced, and I think that's going to slow a lot of it down. But at some point in time they're just going to make connections out of Mexico. And the same people that are bringing the coke in are just going to be bringing the meth in.

RAHER: Armitage sees increased interdiction as the best way to tackle increased importation. But not everyone agrees with that approach. Even though the problems caused by meth are clear, the best way to respond to those problems is the topic of much debate.

[sound of restaurant]

RAHER: After a long day of riding his horse and talking to people, Howard Wooldridge enjoys dinner while talking about the failure of the drug war. Woolridge spent sixteen years as a police officer in Michigan.

HOWARD WOOLDRIDGE: We have unlimited amounts of illegal drugs. Then we have all the crime and corruption and cost of chasing all the drug dealers across America. I would be hard pressed to find one positive thing to say about the war on drugs because it has made essentially everything worse.

RAHER: Wooldridge says the possibility that precursor laws could lead to an increased flow of meth from Mexico is proof that the United States is losing the war on drugs.

But he doesn't want to pass new and tougher laws, he wants to legalize drugs. Wooldridge is part of a small, but growing organization called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. He's riding his horse from Los Angeles to New York City, to bring what he calls a "Paul Revere type message" to citizens, law makers, and just about anyone else who asks him about his cause. He acknowledges that it's hard for politicians to take a position in favor of legalizing drugs, but there are first steps that can be taken now.

WOOLDRIDGE: They could safely promote a concept, that we have in Texas, of no incarceration for personal amounts. They could also be candid with the public when they speak and let them know the truth: that every drug dealer ever arrested or killed is replaced almost immediately and that all these "get tough" laws over thirty five years have had no effect on drug availability.

RAHER: Wooldridge's idea isn't likely to find much support in La Junta. The Sixteenth Judicial District's Gary Armitage says the damage done by drug addicts can only be addressed by getting them off the streets.

ARMITAGE: I have people comment to me about "Well, it's a waste of money to put these people in prison." But, most of the ones I deal with, we're paying for them. We're paying for them one way or another. So, at least we know where they're at.

RAHER: But there is a middle path that's gaining some support in the west.

LUCIANO COLONA: I do understand that if you're a small town in the west and you've got a methamphetamine problem, it's pretty hard to feel a lot of compassion for the methamphetamine user.

RAHER: Luciano Colona is the executive director of the Harm Reducation Coalition. His group doesn't have a position on legalization, but they work with drug addicts, substance abuse counselors, and law enforcement to reduce the harm caused by drug use, even if it means doing things like providing addicts with clean needles. The Coalition is based in Salt Lake City and has an office in Denver. Colona says his group has made significant headway in implementing harm reduction programs in conservative places like Utah, because the evidence is on their side.

COLONA: This "just lock 'em up and throw away the key" approach doesn't work. First of all, you can't lock them up forever. So, to come up with effective prevention and treatment before they end up within the criminal justice system is a wise approach to take. Because eventually, they're going to have to get prevention and treatment inside prison.

RAHER: Colona's group just might be in the right place at the right time. Several law enforcement officials in La Junta expressed concern about potential funding cuts for drug interdiction efforts. The Harm Reduction Coalition says their approach costs less in the long term. The Coalition's Denver office provides food, referrals, and counseling to any drug addict who attends classes on safe drug use and options for recovery. While these services do cost money, supporters say harm reduction is cheaper and more effective than the twenty seven thousand dollars it takes to put someone in prison for a year.

And while they might not be ready to implement harm reduction programs just yet, La Junta police say the new national focus on homeland security has resulted in federal grant programs shifting funds away from the drug war in order to emphasize terrorism prevention. This might prove to be an impetus for alternative policies to gain greater acceptance in state and local governments.

For Western Skies, I'm Stephen Raher.