Pubdate: Fri, 16 Sep 2005
Source: Statesman Journal (Salem, OR)
Copyright: 2005 Statesman Journal
Contact:  http://www.statesmanjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/427
Author: Bill Theobald
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

OREGON SENATORS' METH BILL PASSES

The Measure Would Provide More Help From Federal Agencies

WASHINGTON -- Communities in Oregon and elsewhere would have more help
to battle methamphetamine addiction under a bill the Senate passed
Thursday.

The Combat Meth Act, co-sponsored by Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Gordon
Smith, would provide funding to train police, monitor purchases of the
ingredients used to make the drug and create a center to research
effective treatments for meth addiction.

"The deadly problem of meth is eating away at the social fabric of our
state, and today's action by the Senate is a big step forward in
rebuilding that fabric," said Wyden, a Democrat.

The Senate bill isn't as strict as Oregon's law, which requires people
to have prescriptions for cold and allergy medications that can be
converted into methamphetamine.

Cold medicines such as Sudafed contain pseudoephedrine, the key
ingredient in producing the illegal drug methamphetamine. The Senate
bill would:

# Limit customers to 7.5 grams of cold medicine, about two boxes of
full-strength Sudafed, each month.

# Require customers to show identification when buying cold medicines
and sign a logbook.

# Require all stores and pharmacies to keep cold medicines behind the
counter.

The meth program is part of an appropriations bill to fund federal
commerce, justice and science programs that passed 91-4. It now goes
to a conference committee where members of the House and Senate will
work out a compromise.

Marion County Sheriff Raul Ramirez said that his staff got a stunning
measure of the extent of the methamphetamine problem locally when they
worked with Western Oregon University researchers to survey the more
than 670 inmates in the county jail and work center.

The finding: About 75 percent reported problems with meth
addiction.

"We have been seeing the devastation on children and on families at a
record pace," Ramirez said.

Smith and Wyden said that meth ranks second among the drugs used by
addicted teens in Oregon.

Nationally, a survey this summer of law-enforcement agencies in 45
states identified meth as a bigger problem than cocaine, marijuana or
heroin. Meth lab seizures have doubled across the country in the past
five years, from 7,438 in 1999 to 15,994 last year, according to the
Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Drug Enforcement
Administration.

The Combat Meth Act would provide:

# $15 million for training state and local law-enforcement officials
on how to investigate methamphetamine crimes.

# $5 million to hire additional federal prosecutors and train local
prosecutors, who could try people under tougher federal drug laws.

# $5 million for states and businesses that legally sell ingredients
used to make meth to help monitor those sales.

# $5 million for "rapid response teams" composed of federal, state and
local officials to help children affected by meth-addicted parents.

How this money would be distributed has yet to be determined, said
Andrew Blotky, a spokesman for Wyden.

Ramirez said that his office has been conducting public-education
programs and handing out information packets to groups in Salem and
elsewhere in the county to enlist their help in spotting meth activity.

"There is no way law enforcement can combat this problem without the
help of the public," Ramirez said. "There are not enough police officers."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake