L.A. needs an intervention for its meth problem (2024)

Good morning. I’m Mariel Garza, and it is Wednesday, June 12. Let’s look at what’s going on in Opinion.

The common wisdom holds that you can’t confront a problem until you admit it exists. To that end, the Times’ editorial board this week confronted local officials with something that can no longer be ignored: “L.A. has a serious meth problem, and it’s time to talk about it — frankly, clearly and publicly in a way that we have not yet done, at least not to the extent that we discuss fentanyl, mental illness, COVID-19 or even the measles.”

Why is it time for this intervention? I turned to Robert Greene, our Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer who focuses on criminal justice issues, for answers.

Methamphetamine has been around for decades. Why is it a greater problem now?

Meth use ebbs and flows. A new wave began in Los Angeles just before the pandemic, and use continues to increase in many different segments of L.A. Meth use is suspected in some high-profile violent attacks and erratic behaviors people see on the streets.

How did you become aware of the alarming spread?

In my daily reporting over the last 10 years, mental health physicians told me that much of what is reported as psychosis related to serious mental illness was in fact a result of long-term meth use. But that never seemed to percolate into public policy discussions. I wanted to find out why.

Unlike marijuana, meth isn’t legal to use in California. Why shouldn’t users be arrested?

In some cases, arrest for unlawful possession of meth may be an appropriate intervention if it is linked with effective treatment. But L.A. currently has too few treatment beds that are immediately available. Jail is a poor alternative, in part because jailers need space for more dangerous or risky suspects and convicted offenders, and in part because our jails have a poor record of excluding drugs.

In fact, many addicts prefer jail to treatment, because they know that in jail they can probably obtain meth. An L.A. County sheriff’s deputy was arrested last month for allegedly smuggling drugs to inmates. It’s not the first time this has happened.

Isn’t fentanyl, which can kill people with one dose, the real drug problem in L.A.?

It is one of several serious drug problems in L.A. and gets a lot of attention. Meth is also a serious problem and gets less attention. The problems are merging, because it is increasingly common for users to mix fentanyl or other opioids with their meth.

What was the most surprising thing you learned reporting this editorial?

I was surprised to learn how many medical professionals and police officers appear to believe that meth possession has been decriminalized in California. It hasn’t been.

What’s next?

The traditional binary approach to drug use — stronger enforcement versus legalization — is inadequate to the task. There have been several attempts to break out of that trap and try smarter approaches, but most seem stuck in limbo. We need to find out why.

More from this week in Opinion

A jury was right to find Hunter Biden guilty. It’s the prosecutor who was wrong. It was abuse of prosecutorial discretion, writes Harry Litman, the Times’ legal affairs columnist. “The case’s substantial flaws lay not in the evidence but rather in special counsel David Weiss’ decision to bring it in the first place, in effect throwing the book at President Biden’s son.”

Can California control its boom-and-bust budget? California is facing a $45-billion budget deficit. The Times asked Chris Hoene, executive director of the progressive California Budget and Policy Center, and Joshua Rauh, a Stanford economist and scholar at the conservative Hoover Institution, to share their ideas about how the state could avoid the whiplash of budget surpluses and shortfalls in the future.

How L.A. turned junior high into middle school — and why I can’t wait to be done with it. Columnist Robin Abcarian says so long to the weirdness that is middle school, as her 14-year-old niece, who came to live with her in 2019, graduates from 8th grade. “Having raised a daughter who is now 31 and married, I never expected to shepherd a child through the middle school years again — especially not as a single parent. “

The Supreme Court’s lack of accountability is worse than you think. The court isn’t politically representative and won’t be anytime soon unless we change the way justices are nominated or deployed, says Yale Law School professor Ian Ayres. “Even though Democrats have won the presidency in five of the last eight elections, justices nominated by Democratic presidents during this period have never constituted a majority,” Ayres writes.

From our columnists:

• Jonah Goldberg: Immigration could get Trump elected again. Here’s how Democrats keep getting it wrong
• LZ Granderson: A Trump running mate who praises Jim Crow? That’s a red flag

From the Op-Ed desk:

• The dance floor from ‘Saturday Night Fever’? It’s stayin’ alive
• Thank you, Pat Sajak, for your help in my life’s wheel of fortune
• Interracial marriage went from criminal to commonplace. Could it go back?

From the Editorial Board:

• California’s next school bond should include money for grass, trees and green spaces on campuses
• California’s next affordable housing crisis is the rising cost of property insurance

Letters to the Editor:

• Biden’s border shutdown is about stopping Trump, not immigration
• Live forever on this dying planet? Readers say no thanks
• Kill Joshua trees for a desert solar project? Readers want none of it