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Pubdate: 8 Dec 1998 Source: San Antonio Express-News (TX) Contact: http://www.expressnews.com/ Copyright: 1998 San Antonio Express-News Author: Jaime Castillo, Express-News Staff Writer Note: McCaffrey said he was concerned by the message being sent to children by advocacy groups urging the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes. DRUG CZAR TARGETS METH CRISIS America is winning the war against cocaine, but that drug is being replaced quickly by chemically produced methamphetamine, White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey told state government officials here Tuesday. "Ten years ago, methamphetamine was a minor, West Coast, biker-gang drug," McCaffrey told reporters. "Now it's a dominant drug problem in the rural Midwest, Hawaii, Idaho and Arizona." While casual cocaine use has dropped by as much as 70 percent, the drug czar said, methamphetamine use and production are spreading throughout the country. "It has actually replaced cocaine as the principal emergency room threat in Southern California and Hawaii," McCaffrey said. "We're very worried about it, and I think we're going to see more of this." McCaffrey made his comments at the annual gathering of the Council of State Governments, a nonpartisan group that's been meeting at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter hotel since Friday. The organization devoted the last day of its five-day meeting to discussing drug policy. During one panel discussion, Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall gave a grim account of methamphetamine use in the Midwest. Because the drug is relatively easy and cheap to manufacture, hundreds of people are being injured each year in makeshift labs cropping up in kitchens and homes all over Kansas, Stovall said. "Spending $100 at Wal-Mart could let you net $23,000 in product," she said. In response, Kansas lawmakers want to stiffen criminal penalties relating to the drug. All of the speakers agreed government policy should focus on rehabilitation and curbing drug use among children. McCaffrey said he was concerned by the message being sent to children by advocacy groups urging the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes. "Pain management is not best done with a joint or two vodkas -- it just doesn't ring true," he said. "Doctors should decide about medicine." McCaffrey, who played videotape from four public service messages designed to stop drug abuse, said the number of eighth-graders taking drugs has tripled in the past six years. "The challenge to America is to keep kids from about the sixth grade to the 12th grade from smoking pot and abusing alcohol," he said. - --- Checked-by: Richard Lake