Pubdate: Fri, 22 Jul 2005
Source: Peoria Journal Star (IL)
Copyright: 2005sPeoria Journal Star
Contact:  http://pjstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/338
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

PUT METH ON WHITE HOUSE DRUG HIT LIST

For the last several years, methamphetamine has been the nation's 
fastest growing illegal drug. It's easy to manufacture, primarily out 
of household products that cost as little as $50. It can be made at 
home, so there's no middle man to get the stuff, no dangerous 
transactions, no borders to cross.

It gives a powerful high and is highly addictive.

"The problem is getting worse and worse," says Master Sgt. Ron Ales. 
As head of the local State Police meth response team, he should know. 
In the eight weeks his unit has been operating, it's made 21 arrests 
and busted 14 labs in a 15-county central Illinois region that 
includes the Tri-County area. Business is so good the officers are 
working full-time on meth, among the more than 60 officers across 
Illinois doing so.

It comes as no surprise to him that county sheriffs from throughout 
the nation believe that methamphetamines are their most serious drug 
problem. In a survey conducted by the National Association of 
Counties, the sheriffs blamed meth for overcrowding in their jails, 
for increases in theft and violence and for various social welfare 
problems, including child abuse.

One sheriff in Indiana estimates that 80 percent of his inmates are 
being held on meth-related offenses. Imagine that. Just last week, 
the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services said it would 
shift 56 caseworkers from the Chicago area to downstate because the 
rise in methamphetamine abuse is tearing families apart.

The sheriffs used their findings to ask the federal government to 
restore $804 million cut from the 2006 budget to fight drugs.

Some of that money had been used to form local anti-meth units, such 
as those in Illinois. The cut is especially harmful because of the 
popularity of meth and because "there's not much (federal money) to 
start with," says Joe Dunn, the county association's associate 
legislative director.

Now the sheriffs have an important ally in Washington. Attorney 
General Alberto Gonzales Monday called meth "the most dangerous drug 
in America," surpassing marijuana.

His analysis is welcome, since the White House Office of National 
Drug Control Policy - at least until last week - was insisting that 
the nation's most serious drug problem is marijuana.

White House officials said this is because there are 15 million 
marijuana users in the country, compared to an estimated one million 
meth addicts.

They also argued that marijuana is a gateway drug that can lead to 
more harmful behavior.

Obviously, these officials have spent very little time in the rural 
parts of Illinois or Indiana, where the gateway drug is 
methamphetamine, where it's crippling users and their families, where 
it's imposing almost impossible burdens on police agencies.

It's not marijuana that's filling up the county jails.

The meth problem alone makes a strong case for restoring the 
drug-fighting money cut from next year's federal budget.

But a stronger one exists for distinguishing pot from meth and for 
turning the White House's bully pulpit toward the most dangerous drug 
out there. Gonzales' statement is a start.
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