Senator Feinstein Announces New DEA Office
in Redding to Stop Meth Trafficking
August 23, 2000

Redding, Calif. - U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today announced that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) plans to open a field office in Redding later this year to combat the northward movement of methamphetamine trafficking.

“This is an important new step in the fight against methamphetamine trafficking in Shasta County and the state,” Senator Feinstein said. “Originally scheduled for no earlier than Fiscal Year 2002, we made the case that a DEA office is needed here now, and DEA has agreed to move two agents here by as early as the end of this year.”

Senator Feinstein has long been a leader in the fight against the production and distribution of methamphetamine. She co-authored the Comprehensive Methamphetamine Control Act of 1996, which restricted access to certain precursor chemicals used in making methamphetamine and substantially increased penalties for the sale and possessions of chemicals or equipment used to make methamphetamine.

Senator Feinstein was also a co-sponsor of the Methamphetamine Trafficking Penalty Enhancement Act of 1998, which equalized penalties for methamphetamine crimes with those for crack cocaine.

And during this Congress, she introduced a bill that would increase penalties for dealing in amphetamine; prohibit advertisements for drug paraphernalia; require criminals to pay lab cleanup costs; prohibit distribution of drug-making information; require anti-drug messages on all federal government web sites; and increase funding for a variety of anti-meth programs.

Gilbert S. Bruce, Special Agent In Charge of the San Francisco Field Division of the DEA, was on hand for the announcement.

Some Facts About the Meth Problem in Redding/Shasta County

• California supplies roughly 80% of methamphetamines to the country and the Drug Enforcement Administration considers the State of California is to be the ‘source country’ for Methamphetamines in America.

• In San Diego and Riverside, there is one meth lab seized annually for every 10,000 residents. In Shasta County that figure is similar – one seized for every 11,000 residents.

• One meth lab seized last year was capable of producing enough meth at one time for 4 million doses – about 25 doses for every man, woman and child in Shasta county.

• Shasta County's residents are diagnosed with meth-related mental health problems at five times the state's average.

• And meth is not just a crime and addiction problem – it is also an environmental problem.

• It's estimated that for every pound of meth produced, so are 5 pounds of hazardous waste. The waste, the bulk of which is sodium hydroxide solvent produced during the drug's final cooking stages, is simply buried in backyard ditches, dumped down the drain, or thrown in the garbage.

• The Shasta Interagency Narcotics Task Force (SINTF) is a multi-agency group of seven drug agents funded by the state Office of Criminal Justice Planning. About 73 percent of SINTF arrests are related to methamphetamine.

• The Redding Police Department more than doubled its number of meth-related arrests between 1990 and 1996.

• At least 40 percent of those treated for traumatic injuries in Shasta County were hurt as a result of ingesting methamphetamine, north state physicians estimated in a recent news article.

• The task force estimates that more than 60 percent of drug abusers admitted to public treatment programs are addicted to meth, compared with 20 percent throughout the state.

• In 1999 the Shasta Interagency Drug Team seized 32 meth labs and over 6,000 ounces of meth.

• So far this year Shasta has busted 17 meth labs.