Meth use growing on reservations in California

Tuesday, September 4, 2007  

Federal and tribal officials say methamphetamine use is rising on reservations in southern California.

Statistics are hard to come by but a recent federal survey said meth use is more prevalent among American Indians. In a highly publicized case, a man from the Rincon Reservation was sentenced to 80 years for 80 years in prison for killing his pregnant girlfriend while he was high on meth.

"We are no more and no less susceptible to this drug than anybody else," Temet Aguilar, an administrator with the Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association, told The North County Times.

According to the San Diego Association of Governments, where more than a dozen tribes are based, meth was found in about 36 percent of men and 47 percent of women who were booked into local jails.

Get the Story:
Meth use a growing concern on Indian reservations (The North County Times 8/4)

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