Like Cocaine, but Cheaper : San Diego Called ‘Crystal Meth Capital’

The manufacture, use and sale of methamphetamine has reached epidemic proportions in San Diego and cuts across society, including children and teen-agers, experts say.

“Crystal meth,” once a blue-collar and outlaw-biker drug, is slightly cheaper than cocaine and gives longer highs--thus its widespread appeal--but it’s not known why San Diego has become its major distribution center.

“San Diego is to crystal meth what Bogota, Colombia, is to cocaine--the capital, the center,” U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Ronald J. D’Ulisse said.

Considered ‘Epidemic’

“I don’t understand why, but the crystal meth problem in San Diego is so enormous . . . it’s epidemic,” said Dr. Forest S. Tennant Jr. of UCLA’s School of Public Health and a consultant to the state Department of Justice. “We don’t see that kind of problem anywhere else in the state.”

Since January, 1984, more than 50 clandestine labs manufacturing crystal meth have been raided. Those raids have yielded more than $15 million in weapons, drugs and drug ingredients.

Like cocaine, crystal meth gives a euphoric high. Both drugs are white, powdery substances sold on the street in quarter-gram lots, usually in glassine envelopes for $25 to $35. Like cocaine, crystal meth is consumed either by inhaling--or “snorting”--it through the nose, or injection with a hypodermic syringe after it is dissolved in water and cooked over a small flame.

Dealers Mixing Them

Authorities say cocaine dealers are “cutting” cocaine with crystal meth to give it more punch. Crystal meth is a chemically purer and more potent version of its predecessor, “speed,” which peaked in popularity in the late 1960s and early ‘70s.

“Crystal meth is replacing cocaine,” said Dr. Ronald M. Mineo, director of clinical services at the McDonald’s Center for Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Treatment at Scripps Memorial Hospital. “It’s taking over the market. It’s attractive to young people. Crystal has a myth that it’s not as harmful as coke.

“But sudden deaths among the young from it are increasing. We’re receiving reports of kids getting up, moving across the room and collapsing as though they were acting, when in fact their heart stopped working.”

In 1984, first-time methamphetamine-related admissions at county emergency rooms and treatment centers jumped by 44%, according to a June, 1985, San Diego County drug use report. It also said that more people sought treatment for methamphetamine abuse than any other drug, including alcohol and cocaine.

“Crystal meth is the drug of choice today,” said Kathy A. Willmore, a community education coordinator at Pathways treatment center. “It’s becoming more a part of people’s everyday life style. Now, it’s like a person’s cup of coffee.”