CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Program to Combat Drug Labs Proposed

The attorney general’s office and two state senators have proposed a $10-million program to detect and destroy secret drug labs that make the deadly methamphetamine “crank” and its menacing cousin “ice.” The bill by Sens. Robert Presley (D-Riverside) and Jim Nielsen (R-Rohnert Park) would provide funds to create six new task forces of state drug enforcement agents assigned to seize crank labs and fend off the threat of ice--a cheap, smokable form of speed with a more potent high. If the bill becomes law, the task forces could begin operating sometime next year, Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp said. State Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement figures show more than 2,100 drug labs have been seized in California since 1981, including 426 last year, the most in any state.