HARD FALL FOR USERS OF LATEST ILLICIT FAD METH'S CRASH LANDING DRUG'S RISING POPULARITY RUINS LIVES, TAXES POLICE.

Byline: Josh Kleinbaum Staff Writer

The illegal use of methamphetamine has reached epidemic levels in Los Angeles, and its popularity has now surpassed cocaine as users seek a cheaper, longer-lasting high, officials say.

Methamphetamine-related arrests by the Los Angeles Police Department have soared, from 168 during the first half of 2004 to 304 during the comparable period this year.

More addicts are entering rehabilitation programs, experts say, and methamphetamine is now the most-treated drug in those programs.

Women are using meth to lose weight - about 50 percent of meth users are women - and gay men are using it to improve their sex lives.

Use is on the rise among Latinos - users take the illicit drug as an energy boost as they struggle to support their families.

``For the first time, methamphetamine use has just exceeded cocaine use in Los Angeles,'' said Richard Rawson, associate director of UCLA's Integrated Substance Abuse Program. ``The methamphetamine problem has been devastating for almost 20 years. In Los Angeles, it's a bit more recent.''

Meantime, police and border officials have focused their narcotics units on meth crackdowns, even though production has shifted from California's High Desert to Mexico, where ingredients are easier to come by and law enforcement is more lax.

Still, narcotics task forces in Los Angeles are uncovering significant methamphetamine activity. Last month, police arrested 20 people in San Fernando and Granada Hills and seized 60 pounds of cocaine in a major raid.

``Most of our identity theft, commercial burglars, ongoing career criminals, it's the meth users,'' Los Angeles police Detective James Williams said. ``There's still a lot of heroin users out there, but it's all been eclipsed by meth.''

A central nervous system stimulant like cocaine, methamphetamine provides a strong feeling of euphoria that can last eight to 24 hours. Users feel optimistic and energized. They can work longer and eat less.

Physically, the drug damages the lungs, the liver, the kidneys and the cardiovascular system. It also depletes brain chemicals that are involved in thinking, memory, pleasure and judgment, leaving users depressed and tired once the high wears off.

Mentally, attention span shortens and short-term memory disappears. Users become paranoid - many methamphetamine users have video cameras hooked up around their houses - and suffer from hallucinations.

``They will flip out, see things you don't see,'' said Donald Goossens, a narcotics detective at the LAPD's Mission Area station. ``Instead of sweet little Mom sitting on the couch, they'll see their worst enemy sitting with a shotgun in his lap.''

Methamphetamine can quickly turn a middle-class professional into an out-of-work criminal, officials say. Without an income, meth addicts often turn to crime to finance their habit.

``It brings you to your knees really quickly,'' said Glenn McConnell, a narcotics detective at the West Valley station. ``Alcohol, you can be a 20-year user. You don't see a 20-year meth user.

Law enforcement officials take a two-pronged approach to tackling the growing methamphetamine problem.

Detectives at local stations - like Williams, McConnell and Goossens - and undercover officers target street dealers and their immediate suppliers. They also work closely with gang detectives, since most gangs are involved in narcotics trafficking, particularly methamphetamine.

``With my 10 guys in West Valley, I'm looking at complaints,'' McConnell said. ``Is everybody in the neighborhood getting hit with burglary from a motor vehicle? Do you wake up and see condoms and meth pipes in your front yard or driveway? Try explaining that to your kids.''

While police go after the street users, multi-agency task forces like LA IMPACT focus on the labs and the distribution rings, trying to cut the drug off at its source. In 1999, the LAPD amd LA IMPACT seized 1,012 pounds of methamphetamine, mostly from ``superlabs'' in the High Desert that used pseudoephedrine extracted from over-the-counter cold medication as a base for the drug.

Since then, the major trafficking rings - believed to be run by Mexican gangs - have relocated their operations to Mexico, experts say. Using pseudoephedrine imported from China, the labs produce batches that are usually stronger than the meth produced in the U.S. and smuggle it over the border into California, Arizona and Texas.

``You're getting a higher dose of the drug,'' Rawson said. ``All of the effects are stronger and more damaging over time.''

The Matrix Institute, a rehabilitation center in Tarzana, runs both a private treatment center and a public program for nonviolent offenders diverted from jail under Proposition 36.

The private program serves a clientele of high-functional professionals - doctors, teachers. The Proposition 36 program treats people with criminal records who are trying to avoid jail.

About 10 percent of the patients in the private program are being treated for methamphetamine, while more than 90 percent of the patients in the Proposition 36 program are addicted to methamphetamine, Matrix Clinical Director Ahndrea Weiner said - an indication that meth addicts turn to crime.

``It's a drug that makes you sicker, but you need it more to stay up once it's in your system, and you want to keep it in your system,'' Weiner said.

While the effects of the drug are reversible, it can take months or years before chemicals in the brain return to normal levels, Rawson said. Programs at the Matrix Institute and the Tarzana Treatment Center try to help addicts become clean, but staying away from the drug long enough to lose the craving isn't easy.

``It is kind of like Russian roulette,'' said Ken Bachrach, clinical director of the Tarzana Treatment Center. ``No one ever thinks that they're going to be the one who has been addicted. They're kind of gambling a bit when they start. Some people get addicted first time they use, and others do not.

``But it's like playing with fire, and some people are going to get burned.''

Josh Kleinbaum, [phone]

josh.kleinbaum(at)dailynews.com

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SOURCE: U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency

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