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Meth's March Challenges Drug War
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1095/a07.htmlNewshawk: Kirk
Pubdate: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 METH'S MARCH CHALLENGES DRUG WAR
Source: Ledger, The (FL)
Copyright: 2005 The Ledger
Contact:
voice@theledger.com
Website: http://www.theledger.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/795
Author: Cory Reiss, Ledger Washington Bureau
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm
(Methamphetamine)
WASHINGTON -- Terry Fernandez says he's seen too many children sleeping beside
toxic chemicals in busted neighborhood meth labs.
In Florida, where known methamphetamine labs grew more than 10-fold from 1999 to
2004, that toll and others are rising as states scramble to control a homemade
drug that is hitting eastern states hard and fast.
"It's a dirty drug," said Fernandez, director of the Central Florida
High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a seven-county multiagency alliance with
federal funding. "Once they're into it, they're into it
forever."
The methamphetamine debate was reinforced last week by a report of the National
Association of Counties that said nearly 60 percent of counties consider this to
be their biggest drug problem. Meth is a highly addictive stimulant that
has effects similar to cocaine but lasts longer and is cheaper.
The Bush administration is trying to cut several programs that state officials
say are key to fighting meth. That includes an attempt to slash and
redefine the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program.
Critics say the White House remains focused on the traditional targets of
marijuana and to a lesser extent cocaine while attempting to reorient federal
dollars limited by the war on terrorism toward high-level drug rings.
Congress is resisting, and appears inclined to restore many of Bush's cuts out
of concern for local agencies combating a drug made by small-time
"cooks" virtually anywhere.
In the absence of federal action, at least 42 states have passed or are
considering laws to regulate cold medicines that include the key ingredients
ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, which allow meth to be made in homes, motel rooms
and rural hamlets once known for bootlegging liquor. The ingredients are
highly toxic and flammable, often resulting in serious explosions.
Congress is wrestling with legislation, but it is unclear how quick, strong or
comprehensive that effort will be.
"National leadership does need to pay more heed to it," said James
McDonough, director of the Florida Office of Drug Control.
COMMON COLD
The Florida Legislature this year put some cold medicines behind the counter as
of July 1. That law, however, is not considered among the strongest.
In Florida, Sudafed, Actafed and generic equivalents that contain
pseudoephedrine as their sole active ingredient are behind the counter and can
only be purchased three packs at a time, but in unlimited visits. Stricter
laws in states such as Oklahoma regulate more medications and limit monthly
sales.
"In the political world, you deal with the art of the possible,"
McDonough said, "so we came up with what we thought was a pragmatic law
with the backing of all players."
Experts say the patchwork that states are creating allows for loopholes.
Congress is considering a slew of bills in the House and Senate that would
regulate cold medicines nationwide, enhance programs for children exposed to the
chemical process and address other effects.
House members say some measures could reach the floor as early as this month.
Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jim Talent, R-Mo., for example, are
pushing legislation that would limit purchases of cold medicine containing
pseudoephedrine per person each month. Logs would be kept and
identification checked. Retailers have successfully fought such measures
in many states.
RUNGS OF THE LADDER
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, there were 7,438 meth labs
busted in 1999 nationwide but 17,033 last year. Busts in California
dropped from 2,579 to 753 in that time, but they have surged elsewhere.
Florida saw 23 meth-lab busts in 1999 and 277 last year, according to federal
statistics.
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy stresses the need to
control ingredients for meth, and it agrees the drug poses new problems.
But the administration proposed eliminating a $805 million grant program in the
Department of Justice, cutting the Safe and Drug Free Schools Program in the
Department of Education by 53 percent, making a 60 percent cut for grants to
address meth hot spots and slashing by more than half the multi-county and
multi-agency grants under the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program, or
HIDTA, from $228 million to $100 million.
Critics say those programs are important in the fight against meth and other
drugs.
Marc Wheat, a top aide to Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., chairman of the
Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources, said
Congress has been forced to protect existing programs instead of "trying to
advance the ball on fixing some things we think are problematic."
Moreover, the administration proposed moving HIDTA out of the Office of National
Drug Control Policy into the Justice Department. Observers say the move is
an effort to gain control over an office that was created by executive order yet
has the distinction of containing programs created and controlled by Congress,
including the HITDA program, which is the office's largest.
The White House says anti-drug spending throughout the federal government rise 2
percent under the president's budget proposal, and it is working to block
international sources of the methamphetamine that account for an estimated 80
percent of U.S. consumption.
Administration officials say programs are targeted for big cuts or elimination
because they haven't proven effective and the budget is tight. The justice
grants, drug free schools program and HIDTA have become mostly "revenue
sharing" projects with states, said a spokesman for the drug policy office.
"I do not think we have neglected or diminished any one of those rungs of
the ladder," said David Murray, an administration policy analyst for the
drug policy office.
The House has restored many of the proposed cuts in 2006 spending bills and
refused to move the HIDTA program, but the Senate has not settled these
questions.
This debate reveals a struggle over direction of the drug war just as Congress
is debating reauthorization of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a
process that sets direction and goals for coming years.
For example, the drug policy office complains it has been unable to focus HIDTA
on organized crime and drug rings, explaining its plan to move the program to a
unit in the Justice Department dealing with those organizations.
OUTDATED VISION?
Some critics say the administration would sacrifice funding for local law
enforcement -- which they call especially critical with rising meth use -- to
break up high-level rings while saving for the war on terrorism.
"That seems to be the goal," said Abbey Levenshus, spokeswoman for
Rep. Rick Larsen, a Washington Democrat who is co-chairman of the
Congressional Meth Caucus. "It's been a struggle. People are
afraid of terrorists, but right now they're more afraid of the meth house that's
down the street."
Some local officials and lawmakers say the White House is clinging to an
outdated view of the drug problem. Joe Dunn, a lobbyist with the National
Association of Counties, said the administration is missing a crisis.
"Their main focus has been on marijuana," he said, "and from what
our people are telling us, it's methamphetamine that is the problem."
