North Las Vegas Police Chief Mark Paresi speaks during Tuesday's crime summit at the Suncoast. Photos by Clint Karlsen. Clark County Sheriff Bill Young calls methamphetamine the biggest problem facing Southern Nevada.

It's known as "biker's coffee," "crank" and "Stove Top," but law enforcement agencies in Southern Nevada call methamphetamine the biggest problem facing the valley.

Speaking at a crime summit for local law enforcement officials in Southern Nevada on Tuesday, Clark County Sheriff Bill Young and others described the drug as a major plague and the root of many other crimes, from robberies at construction sites to increased cases of child abuse and neglect.

"People who are on meth are not necessarily working. They are committing armed robberies. They are stealing cars. They'll steal anything that's not bolted down," Young said.

The officials agreed that cracking down on methamphetamine is a priority for the law enforcement agencies. That means they want to stem the trafficking from Mexico, reduce the drug's sales, and especially try to curb its use in Southern Nevada.

The officials will discuss their findings and the plan on how to combat the drug at a future meeting.

The crime summit, touted as the first of its kind in Southern Nevada, brought together almost a dozen local police departments and state agencies such as the Nevada Highway Patrol to discuss crime trends and ways to fight some local crime problems.

While the officials discussed other issues such as gang violence and traffic fatalities, they agreed that methamphetamine was the largest problem facing the Las Vegas Valley, Young said.

"It's the over arching problem in this valley leading to crime overall," Young said. "Every single police chief in this valley agrees that meth is leading to almost every other crime we have."

In general, violent crimes went down from 2004 to 2005 in Las Vegas. According to the FBI, the number of violent crime incidents went down from 9,783 to 9,529.

The number of robberies and aggravated assaults went down but murders and rapes are up, according to FBI statistics.

Southern Nevada is not the only area being affected by the drug.

In 2005, the National Association of Counties, which represents county governments, surveyed law enforcement and child welfare agencies across the country. Of the 500 responding law enforcement agencies, 88 percent reported an increase in meth-related arrests since about 1999 and 58 percent of counties said meth was their largest drug problem.

According to the federal Office of National Drug Policy, the number of people being admitted for drug treatment in which meth was the primary drug increased from 33,443 1994 to 129,079 in 2004.

Mark Paresi, police chief of North Las Vegas, called methamphetamine the "Black Plague" of our time.

"It literally destroys families," he said, adding that emergency services, child care and schools are all negatively affected by the drug.

He said the police agencies need to "raise the consciousness" of the public and continue to inform the public of the dangers of the drug.

"Crack pales in comparison to methamphetamine," he said.