Idaho

DEA Updated Idaho Drug Situation

Idaho Meth: Use & Attitudes Survey 2007 Statewide

Idaho Meth Project Overview

Idaho Clandestine Drug (Meth) Lab Cleanup Program

Drug Situation: Mexican drug trafficking organizations trafficking in methamphetamine, marijuana, and cocaine are the greatest threat to the state. Crystal methamphetamine is quickly replacing methamphetamine HCl in popularity throughout Idaho. The northern portion of the Idaho panhandle shares a border with Canada and this area has been the subject of seizures of BC Bud marijuana being smuggled from Canada to the United States. Mexican nationals have made inroads into the large scale outdoor production of marijuana on private, state, and federal lands. Cocaine is available in Idaho however crack cocaine is not considered a significant threat. Club drugs are mainly a part of rave parties, with MDMA (street name Ecstasy) being the most available. Drug trafficking organizations in Idaho engage in money laundering, using a variety of methods to legitimize and reposition illicit proceeds.
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Using ads to fight meth
Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter plans to meet with the billionaire founder of the Montana Meth Project about bringing an in-your-face advertising campaign on the perils of methamphetamine to Idaho.
Tom Siebel, a part-time Montana resident who founded a software company he later sold to Oracle Corp. for $5.8 billion, created the Montana Meth Project two years ago after meeting with the state’s attorney general, Mike McGrath. Since 2005, advertisements on Montana billboards, newspapers and radio and television stations aim to dissuade children between the ages of 12 and 17 from trying methamphetamine.
On the radio, children share methamphetamine-related horror stories. Montana television stations repeatedly show a boy sucking desperately on a small glass pipe. Outside of Great Falls, Mont. - a city roughly the size of Idaho Falls - a large billboard features a young man with a horribly pockmarked face. The caption reads, “Actually, doing meth won’t make it easier to hook up.”
And in newspapers across the state, an ad showing a dirty bathroom stall is published. “No one thinks they’ll lose their virginity here. Meth will change that.” Siebel provided $5 million to kick-start the campaign and another $5 million late last year to continue the project. Otter plans to meet with Siebel on Wednesday about bringing the campaign to Idaho, but he intends to pick Siebel’s brain, not his pocket.
Debbie Field, Otter’s drug czar, said Otter already has been seeking out people willing to participate in a similar project in Idaho. She said she has a stack of cards in her office with the names of companies and individuals willing to help pay for it. “He’s bringing them to the table and saying, ‘We need them in the fight,”’ Field told the Post Register for a story Tuesday.
A Boise television station has already pledged free advertising time in March, and Field said she plans to have the ad campaign in full swing soon after. She hopes to have a statewide survey completed by this spring to better understand the scope of the drug problem. She also said she envisions Idaho using taxpayer dollars to help pay the bills once the program proves its worth.
In Montana, Gov. Brian Schweitzer has proposed spending state money to help the campaign there, and U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., also plans to seek federal money. Montana’s project is little more than a year old, but data released last week by its attorney general’s office shows that it is having an impact.
The study showed that 93 percent of Montana’s students say meth use comes at “great risk”; workplace drug testing showed a 73 percent decrease in the number of people testing positive for meth in 2006; and meth-related crime decreased by 53 percent from 2005 to 2006. In Idaho, an estimated 85 percent of the 7,124 prisoners struggle with an addition to drugs or alcohol. Idaho Department of Correction spokeswoman Teresa Jones said half of the addicts leaving the prison system identified meth as their drug of choice.
Idaho Department of Health and Welfare spokesman Ross Mason said the state spends about $4 million a year treating meth addiction.

S. IDAHO LAWMAKER PLANS TO PUSH METH-MOMS BILL
A state senator from southern Idaho intends to try again to pass a law making it a felony for pregnant women to use methamphetamine or other illegal drugs.
Last year, Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Delco, got the bill through the Senate but couldn’t get it heard in the House. Under the bill, a pregnant woman convicted of using meth, marijuana, LSD or other drugs would have faced up to five years in prison and a $50,000 fine.
“I’m still feeling my way on it,” Darrington told the Idaho State Journal. “The alternative seems to be to do nothing, and it seems like that’s what (the House of Representatives) wants to do.”
A provision in the bill would have allowed women to take part in the state’s drug-court system, which tries to help drug users who commit crimes to stop using drugs and begin productive lives. However, pediatricians were against the bill because they thought it would lead to less prenatal care and more abortions.
To try and satisfy some of those concerns, Darrington said he plans to meet with Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, who is chairman of the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee. “I haven’t decided what I’m going to do,” Darrington said. “I don’t know how much I can change it.” Darrington said he and Clark also want to formalize the Office of Drug Control Policy, which was created by former Gov. Jim Risch last summer. Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter has appointed Debbie Field to head the office, a position being referred to as “drug czar.” “(The legislation) doesn’t use the word drug czar, but that’s what we’re going to call her,” Darrington said.
The number of meth labs busted in Idaho dropped to 21 in 2005 from 131 in 2001. But authorities say methamphetamine is mostly being imported into the state from Mexico.

Meth mom’ bill clears Senate by 18-16 vote: Get-tough measure sparks controversy
The so-called “meth moms” bill that could lead to pregnant drug users serving jail time in Idaho squeaked through the Senate Tuesday by a mere two votes. Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Declo, the bill’s sponsor, acknowledged treatment programs would be a preferable alternative to law enforcement intervention, but said under the state’s current landscape meth babies are being born with increasing frequency.""Shouldn’t it be a crime for a mother to induce those chemicals into her baby?” he asked during his closing argument. But the controversial get-tough measure worries care providers and women’s groups who fear it could lead to higher abortion rates and less pre-natal care. During a passionate debate, Sen. Dick Compton, R-Coeur d’Alene, said he’d like to see drug dealers publicly stoned, but voted against the bill out of a fear of unintended consequences. “It is my great fear that these mothers will not come forward because now they’ve got felony charges waiting around the bend for them,” he said. The bill, which passed by an 18-16 vote, would mean pregnant mothers convicted of doing marijuana, LSD, methamphetamine or other drugs could face up to five years in jail and a $50,000 penalty. If the option is available to them, the guilty mothers could choose to attend drug court instead of going to jail. Darrington said the goal of the legislation isn’t to lock up pregnant women, but rather to foster the birth of clean babies. He also emphatically denied certain cold medicines could be included on the controlled substances list. Law enforcement officials have said the bill would give them a new tool in the fight against meth and other drugs and local prosecutors say the measure would benefit the health of both mothers and their children. But opponents of the proposal blasted the “meth moms” bill on Tuesday as a reactionary solution to an ever-widening social problem. “The bill does nothing to address the problem of addiction,” said Sen. Kate Kelly, D-Boise. “Being addicted to meth is not a crime, it’s a disease.” According to one lawmaker, statistics from South Carolina have shown that implementation of tough laws against pregnant drug users result in an 80 percent reduction in pre-natal treatment. To legislators intent on sending an anti-drug message, however, such facts didn’t tell the whole story. “It at least provides some protection for that baby,” said Sen. Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa. “I know this is a very tough thing, but I think it’s the right thing.” Interestingly, the 35-member Senate includes only four women, three of whom voted against the bill. And while methamphetamine and other drugs are widely thought to have negative consequences if taken during pregnancy, the only substance definitively shown to harm a fetus is alcohol, a product legal to those age 21 and over.