Published 4/12/00 in Feather Publishing newspapers.

DEAL METH, GO TO PRISON

by Jeff Cunan

The purpose of this article is to provide fair warning to those in the methamphetamine community of a current policy in the Plumas County District Attorney's Office. Hopefully the policy, and its basis, will be made clear enough that those who choose to continue trafficking in meth do so with no illusions as to the consequences if caught.

Japanese scientists are generally credited with the invention of methamphetamine around 1917. It was used extensively by pilots on most sides of World War II, most notably by suicide Kamakazee bombers. Adolph Hitler is said to have been injected with the drug up to seven times a day during the War, which accounts for a lot, including that distinctively crazed look in his eyes we've all seen in old photographs. The drug's popularity has waffled over the last eighty years due primarily to social stigmas associated with it, even in the drug community. For a long time meth was considered solely a "white trash" drug. Meth was called Crank due to its frequent transportation in the crankcase of Harley-Davidsons. Later, truckers started using it more and more to keep awake, as well as college students trying to cram for exams. Today, due to its ease of production and cheapness compared to other drugs, meth has swept America like a plague. It has crept into every nook of our society. It exists throughout Plumas County . And it is a scourge. Therefore, it is now the position of our office that for those who assist the spread of methamphetamine in this community, we will demand state prison, for as long as we can manage.

The question of how to effectively deal with the problem of drug use in America is complex. Some of society's most conservative members advocate straight legalization of all narcotics, reasoning that it is a huge waste of taxpayer dollars to mount a losing struggle to keep drug users from killing themselves. More liberal factions prefer to keep fighting "hard" drugs, like heroin, cocaine, PCP, and meth, while legalizing, perhaps, marijuana and a few designer drugs. Drug dealers and manufacturers, of course, prefer to keep their products illegal, thus decreasing supply and increasing price and profit, while slackening punishment if they get caught (though any reduction in prison risk also increases supply, thus reducing price - the bolder, bigger dealers therefore appreciate the sky-high sentences occasionally handed out by federal courts, which scare off the timid sellers and producers). Somewhere in the middle is the classic, current approach of as vigorous law enforcement as possible against all illegal drugs in an effort to stem the tide of drug-trashed lives that has been sweeping this country for many years (ironically, and adding to the problem, is the current phenomenon of using more and more legal drugs, particularly by children, to deal with emotional problems, thus establishing a rather mixed message about the use of drugs in general). It is generally thought that government inaction would be inexcusable, even if action is ineffectual.

To a large extent it is this phenomenon of the ineffectuality of the criminal justice system that brought me to Plumas County . I was raised to be a lawyer (for better or worse) in the Bay Area suburbs by a family of attorneys and judges, and I've wanted to be a criminal lawyer since I was 10-years-old. I used to cut grammar school to watch murder trials in Oakland , and I've been a student of criminal law ever since.

Therefore, I quickly learned what everyone involved in big city "criminal justice" eventually learns: it is an exciting way to make a living, but justice, by almost any definition, doesn't really happen very often. And in a place like the Bay Area, fighting drugs is like shooting bullets at rain drops to keep from getting wet. There is too much availability, too many resources at the disposal of the bad guys, and too few in the hands of law enforcement. On most fronts throughout America , the War on Drugs has been flatly lost, though it continues to be waged at unbelievable monetary expense.

Plumas County , I think, is different, as I'll explain further below. During the two and a half years I have been the felony Deputy D.A. in Plumas County some have claimed that more people have been sent to prison behind drug charges than were sent in the seven years prior to my arrival. Even if this is true (the statistics are fuzzy), I can't claim any credit, if "credit" is the word for such a thing. For one thing, I may be the only person that has held this job for over two years straight in the last decade. Also, many people were sent to prison who otherwise would not have been, because they were on felony probation for convictions in other places or before I got here.

I mention all this because I try to be very careful about sending people to prison generally. As most people in this business understand, prison is not always the best idea in all felony circumstances. Prison is a bad place, as it should be, but sometimes we have greater control over people if they are on felony probation, with stringent conditions, after giving them up to a year in the county's jail. Most importantly, however, is the fact that the California Department of Corrections almost always paroles people back to the community that sent them away (a good thing, since any other system would grace us with L.A.'s violent felons). State prison rarely improves a person's disposition. Prison often serves as a kind of crime college, where our mountain transgressors learn to become hardened, much more serious, criminals, before they are released back onto our streets.

Which all brings me in a roundabout way to the thesis of this article. Given all the above considerations, I am firmly committed to sending anyone in Plumas County who I can prove has spread methamphetamine beyond themselves (i.e. gives, sells, or makes) to state prison. And it is my compassion for the addict that leads me to this stance. The slow suicide of meth addiction is tragic, therefore spreading it outside oneself is a crime of great magnitude, similar, in my view, to robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and attempted murder. As in such cases, it must be made clear that the spreading of meth warrants prison - every time. And here's why:

First of all, methamphetamine is everywhere, with its highest concentration in rural areas. The national meth capitol is considered by many to be Kansas City, where several hundred labs were discovered last year alone. Meth is cheap and easy to make. On a small scale, with a few over-the-counter supplies, it can be made in any household sink. Hotels and motels everywhere report frequent lab discoveries. Instructions for manufacture are available on the Internet ($19.95 for a CD-ROM the last time I checked). Larger scale production generally emits a strong, distinctive smell, is highly explosive, and very, very toxic, which makes rural labs, with fewer neighbors and cops, desirable. Because it's so easy to make, supply of meth is high, therefore price is very low. It is generally cheaper to stay high on meth than it is to stay drunk on beer.

The prevalence of meth today is like that of marijuana yesterday (an even easier drug to produce since all you need is a seed and some dirt), but meth is far more deadly. And this is the part most early meth users don't understand. To the user, meth doesn't feel deadly. It produces a pleasant euphoria that doesn't seem too debilitating. High school kids use it at parties, and it doesn't seem to do much more than increase the fun. Adults even use it at work and can maintain their jobs (for awhile), feeling that, if anything, their productivity is increased by the apparent added energy the drug provides. Meth is a stimulant, often called Speed for the full mind/body sensation it produces. But the energy and euphoria produced by meth is ultimately short-lived, and, most significantly, purely artificial. It is composed of some of the most toxic substances ever combined.

I would probably prefer, if forced to choose, that my children snorted D-Con rat poison than methamphetamine. While the straight physical effects would be similar, the long-term destructibility of meth is far worse. Unlike rat poison, meth is one of the most addictive substances on earth. Further, the artificial production of adrenaline that boosts the meth user's energy has to be paid for by the body. The energy that comes with healthy living is paid for through exercise, and the consumption of vitamins, minerals, and calories ingested through food. Everything is produced and consumed in a cycle of reproduction that sustains the healthy body. Meth, on the other hand, produces the energy, but is fed by nothing. Therefore, it simply eats your body away from the inside to pay for the artificial energy. Meth addicts usually end up looking like they're starving to death.

Another aspect of meth that is worse than rat poison is its artificial production of dopamine. Dopamine is naturally produced in the human brain and is associated with healthy euphoria. When you do something that makes you feel good, either mentally or physically, your brain produces dopamine. Methamphetamine causes the production of dopamine too, which is why it feels so good to take it. At the same time, however, methamphetamine inhibits the body's ability to produce dopamine naturally. Therefore, the more you use meth, the harder it becomes to feel good about anything without it, until it becomes impossible altogether. Eventually, the meth addict can feel nothing positive at all, other than whatever tired sensation is still left from ingesting the drug.

Finally, methamphetamine is one of the few readily available drugs that is so utterly toxic. Just look at what it's made of: Production is usually done in five basic stages. First, you mix and heat ephedrine (often supplied by crushing hundreds of cold tablets), hydriotic acid, and red phosphorous to form D-Methamphetamine, an acidic solution susceptible to fires, explosions, and the emission of toxic gas. Next, you strain out the red phosphorous with a pillowcase or some other filter; and it better be effective, because if the phosphorous makes it into the finished product it will kill you much faster than meth's usual slow death. Next, sodium hydroxide (lye) is added to convert the acidic mixture to a basic one. Next, freon or Coleman fuel is added to aid in the extraction of the D-Methamphetamine from the lye. Finally, by treating the resulting bi-layered solution with hydrogen chloride gas, the D-Methamphetamine oil layer converts into a white chrystalline powder called methamphetamine. (Caution: the above summary leaves out several important logistic considerations in the production of methamphetamine. If you try to use it as a guide, you'll probably kill yourself before I have a chance to send you to prison).

Considering what goes into meth, you begin to understand my rat poison analogy. If it wasn't illegal, D-CON would probably have a patent on methamphetamine.

The bottom line is that I despise the presence of meth in our community. So do most judges, probation officers, and defense lawyers I know. As do most addicts I've talked to who find themselves almost suddenly gripped by the inescapability of something they originally thought of as a harmless party favor. The problem is that so far nothing seems to work to stop this insidious disease.

I believe that while the fight against methamphetamine may be being lost in America generally, Plumas County, due to its unique geographic and cultural qualities, can surgically remove it (more or less), like a cancer. This solution has three parts. First is education. In-depth, accurate education of our citizens, particularly kids, has to not only be made available, but spread like the teachings of a televangelist, in our schools, through our Alcohol and Drug Department, and through articles like this one.

Second, there needs to be effective treatment of addicts. Again, Alcohol and Drug obviously needs to take the lead here, but Plumas County has come a long way in the last year with the inception of a Drug Court, which provides intense, pretty effective treatment (including punishment) of drug users and addicts who make their way into the criminal justice system.

Finally, now that the above two steps are more or less in place, the scalpel needs to be applied. Those who multiply the problem beyond themselves must be removed. Whether they're acting out of addiction or merely greed, it is essential that the consequences for the spread of meth be so severe that those who can't seem to help it at least go somewhere else. I would like to see meth parolees begging to be transferred out of Plumas County. With our limited populace and geographic access, and our ability to monitor what's going on far better than most communities, all we need now is the resolve to take decisive action.

Therefore, for those convicted of sales or manufacture of methamphetamine I will not agree to anything less than state prison. However, such a commitment is meaningless unless it is supported by everyone else in the system, particularly the community. If you agree with my approach, write to a judge; they're the ones ultimately responsible for sentencing. If you have time, or kids (no one has both), learn all you can about methamphetamine and spread what you learn. In my view meth is the single most significant threat to the spectacular lifestyle still available in Plumas County. As I often say to family and friends down below, it's the last real place in California. Let's do what we can to keep it that way.