GILROY
– It’s a white powder drug that can be produced with
over-the-counter products, and it’s solidifying itself as the
substance of choice for Gilroy’s drug dealers and users.
GILROY – It’s a white powder drug that can be produced with over-the-counter products, and it’s solidifying itself as the substance of choice for Gilroy’s drug dealers and users.
According to recent Gilroy Police Department statistics, the amount of people in Gilroy arrested or ticketed for possessing, selling or using the stimulant methamphetamine so far this year is on pace to more than triple 1998 numbers.
And to local law enforcement, it’s become clear that the popularity of methamphetamine in Gilroy is proving to be a long-term problem, not just a passing fad as they had hoped.
“There’s no question that meth is now the most popular drug in Gilroy,” said a narcotics expert with the Gilroy Police Department’s Anti-Crime Team, who asked to remain unidentified for this article due to fears that exposure might compromise undercover work. “(Methamphetamine) is easy to manufacture, it’s in large supply, it’s cheap and it gives the desired effect. …
“Of course we’re not happy with this trend, because dealing with someone high on meth can be a very dangerous thing.”
Since the use of methamphetamine in Gilroy first began to grow in the late 1990s, the GPD and other local law enforcement agencies have been fighting to keep the drug in check.
The number of arrests and tickets given by the GPD for meth sales, possession and consumption peaked at 87 in 2000, although 50 such reports have already been filed by the GPD this year. If the numbers stay steady, 2003 will mark the first year the GPD records more than 100 incidents of meth abuse.
But none of these trends surprise local law enforcement and drug experts, who point to the drug’s mass availability in the area, its relative low cost and its addictive nature.
A form of speed derived from substances such as ephedrine and amphetamine, methamphetamine is often produced in local make-shift labs. Blended with a variety of chemicals, methamphetamine causes the heart rate to accelerate and the brain to produce extra amount of the pleasure-sensing chemical dopamine – leading to euphoric feelings.
Also commonly called “crank,” methamphetamine is usually smoked in a glass pipe or snorted. The high can last from 20 minutes to 12 hours, although the chemicals remain in the body for nearly 24 hours – much longer than other stimulants such as cocaine.
“It’s an amazingly seductive drug,” said George Minerva, an assistant supervisor at Community Solutions, 8475 Forest St., where he has helped supervise a drug rehabilitation program founded five years ago.
“Women think they can lose weight and depressed people are looking for a high to feel good – but eventually the opposite happens, the weight comes back and the depression is worse,” said Minerva, who estimates 80 percent of the 500 addicts a year who enlist in Community Solutions drug and alcohol rehab program are there for methamphetamine. “Eventually, it will rob you of everything.”
Minerva said many of the methamphetamine addicts in his program became so addicted to meth that they turned to crime to pay for their drug habits.
Although meth only costs about a third of cocaine, a tolerance is quickly built up by the user so more is required to feel the high.
Due to Gilroy’s location near major highways, its demographics and high unemployment rate, methamphetamine is never at a shortage, Minerva said.
“I joke that there’s a huge semi-truck parked somewhere in Gilroy handing out meth because its so prevalent here,” said Minerva, who’s treated Gilroy high school – and even junior high – students using meth. “With a drug like meth that can be produced in a basement or garage, there’s always going to be a supply.”
While until recently methamphetamine was mostly confined to use in the Western and Southwestern U.S. and Hawaii, it is now spreading across the country and leading to more studies of its long-term physical and mental affects.
Several studies have concluded that using meth can cause more brain damage than other stimulants due to its amateur production status, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Its addictiveness measures very high among speed stimulants, and there is a high crime rate associated with meth users. Unauthorized disposal of chemicals used to produce meth also causes a wide range of environmental damage.
For these reasons, Gilroy law enforcement agencies are searching for ways to curb the drug’s popularity before its too late.
Recent California legislation has made it illegal to buy large quantities of over-the-counter pharmaceuticals used in methamphetamine production, and state laws have also been changed to make possession of any amount of methamphetamine a felony. The laws are a good weapon against the drug, but the methamphetamine epidemic will continue to grow unless more is done to deter meth use, said a local expert.
“The potential of this drug is frightening,” said a member of the local Unified Narcotic Enforcement Team (UNET), which combines members of several local law agencies in an effort to capture narcotics. The officer works undercover with both UNET and the GPD, and asked not to be identified.
“(Meth) is so prevalent right now,” he said. “People who read a how-to on the Internet are mixing flammable chemicals in basements and garages. Their house could blow up, their neighbor’s house too – but they know there’s a market.”
