In jail study, most inmates used marijuana, cocaine

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, December 17, 2006

More men and women are being booked into the Snohomish County Jail with marijuana and cocaine in their systems than any other drug, including methamphetamine, according to a new study.

Meth is the drug county leaders blame most when they discuss crime and other problems in the community linked to drugs. It showed up in a quarter of the people booked into jail during the study.

Marijuana, meanwhile, was detected in more than one-third of the male inmates who submitted to a urinalysis at booking, according to the preliminary study results. One-third of the women tested positive for cocaine.

Meth was the third most common drug found in men and second among the women in the study.

The county has attracted national attention for its war on meth. Cold medicines have been pulled off grocery store shelves to curb local production. Policy-makers have spent millions of dollars fighting and tracking meth’s impacts.

The survey tested nearly 600 men and 100 women booked into the jail during an eight-week period from July through September. Participants agreed to anonymously answer a series of questions about how they get drugs, how they contact sellers, how frequently they use drugs and whether they’ve ever received treatment.

Participants also were given an additional questionnaire specifically geared at meth use.

They also agreed to provide urine samples. The samples were tested for 10 drugs, including meth, cocaine, marijuana and prescription medication.

Almost three-quarters of the men tested positive for some kind of illicit drug and drugs were detected in about 70 percent of the women.

Law enforcement officials agree that marijuana and cocaine are likely more prevalent in Snohomish County. They say, however, that meth has drawn significant attention because they see evidence it is more damaging to the community than any other drug.

“I don’t think we’re the meth capital of the Western world,” Lynnwood Police Chief Steve Jensen said. “I do think meth drives a criminal lifestyle more than any other drug.”

Meth use is more visible to the community because of its environmental hazards and the other crimes that seem to go hand-in-hand with the drug, Jensen said.

Officials with the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force, which helped pay for the jailhouse study, declined to comment about the results until a final report is released. The county also helped fund the study. A contractor administered the survey.

Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart has waged a very public campaign against meth, calling it a plague on the county.

The survey results won’t change his message, he said.

“Marijuana is king. It’s number one. But meth is toxic,” Bart said. “The pot smokers and coke addicts are a problem, but the big difference we see with meth is people will do anything to get it. We preach ‘Meth, meth, meth’ because of what it is doing to our community. We can’t forget that.”

A similar survey was done three years ago, testing only male inmates. Slightly fewer men tested positive for marijuana during the most current test. More men, however, were found to have meth and cocaine in their systems compared to the 2003 test.

Meth production in local labs creates environmental hazards unlike police had seen with any other drugs, Bart said.

Local labs have been declining in recent years. The majority of meth found around the state now is likely being imported from Mexico, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The meth likely comes from super labs run by the same drug organizations that have controlled the cocaine and heroin trade, according to drug experts.

The county’s largest drug seizures continue to be marijuana and cocaine, Bart said. They are big business here.

In 2005, police discovered a drug ring that smuggled high-grade marijuana from British Columbia into the U.S. in exchange for cocaine after a Canadian man was stopped on U.S. 2 in Monroe with 372 pounds of cocaine. It was thought to be one of the biggest busts in state history. Earlier this year, police found nearly a ton of marijuana stuffed in a load of plastic pipes on a truck parked at a Stanwood rest stop.

“Marijuana is a huge enterprise here,” Jensen said.

Bart said perhaps more attention needs to be paid to the fact the county has a problem with multiple drugs.

The survey showed that about 33 percent of the women and 28 percent of the men tested positive for more than one drug.

“It’s rare that (an addict) is doing just one type of drug,” said Cammy Hart-Anderson, who coordinates drug treatment programs for the county’s Human Services Department.

The county offers treatment to low-income and indigent addicts and alcoholics. The majority of people seeking treatment through the county report that alcohol is their primary drug of choice, according to data collected during the first six months of this year.

Participants in the recent jail study weren’t tested for alcohol because it is usually flushed out of a person’s system within 24 hours.

The jail survey will be used to guide treatment providers, law enforcement and corrections officials to focus on the needs in the community. The county will be building on programs already in place to treat people addicted to drugs and alcohol, jail spokesman Jim Harms said.

Beginning next year, drug treatment is scheduled to be offered to inmates in the Snohomish County Jail. The in-house treatment will be coupled with an existing program that offers treatment to people on work release or home detention.

The hope is to stop the cycle of criminal behavior, Harm said.

“We should see them less and it should make the community safer,” he said.

Drug test results

The county tested 537 men and 107 women booked into the jail for drugs during a substance abuse survey earlier this year.

Here are the percentages of inmates who tested positive:

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