Pubdate: Tue, 19 Jul 2005
Source: Kennebec Journal (ME)
Contact:  2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc
Website: http://www.centralmaine.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1405
Author: Beth Quimby, Blethen Maine Newspapers
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

GONZALES: WE'RE WINNING WAR AGAINST METH

PORTLAND -- Despite some grim statistics, authorities are winning the war 
against methamphetamine abuse, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told a 
national gathering of public prosecutors in Portland on Monday.

Gonzales, the nation's top law-enforcement official, appeared at the 
National District Attorneys Association summer convention to talk about the 
toll methamphetamine abuse has taken and what is working to combat its spread.

In Washington, Gonzales has been mentioned as a leading candidate to 
replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court. In Portland, 
Gonzales stuck to his methamphetamine message, took no questions and said 
nothing about the high court in his address to more than 550 district 
attorneys, their spouses and children.

To wipe out meth abuse, Gonzales said, local, state and federal 
law-enforcement officials as well as private citizens must work together.

"We must get the neighbors involved," he said.

Gonzales said 58 percent of counties nationwide rank methamphetamine abuse 
as their biggest problem. Last year 1.3 million people used meth, he said, 
four times the number of people who used heroin.

The meth epidemic originated on the West Coast and has hit the country's 
heartland -- states such as Iowa, Oklahoma, Missouri and Colorado -- 
particularly hard. Gonzales said the scourge has also moved into big cities.

Methamphetamine is a highly addictive stimulant. It can be manufactured at 
home by cooking over-the-counter cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine 
and related substances with liquid fertilizer and starter fluid. It is 
smoked, snorted or injected. It is considered the cheap alternative to 
cocaine, in part because the euphoria lasts longer.

The illegal drug is taking a toll nationwide, causing misery for the 
addicts, who often suffer psychosis and other side effects, and pain for 
their families. Police uncover about 45 small meth labs each day. Since 
2001, more than 50,000 meth labs have been shut down, 30 percent in homes 
where children live. Gonzales said 15,000 children have had their lives 
disrupted by meth-addicted parents in the past five years.

Gonzales told the prosecutors that the meth problem requires unconventional 
solutions, some of which are already bringing results.

He said measures to restrict the sale of pseudoephedrine products such as 
Sudafed in states hit hard by the meth epidemic have brought about dramatic 
drops in addiction.Maine adopted a pseudoephedrine-control law this year, 
but Maine and other Northeastern states have escaped the meth epidemic that 
has swept through the rest of the country.

Last year police seized three small meth labs in Maine and only one so far 
this year, said Roy McKinney, head of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency. 
Still, law-enforcement officials are worried that it is just a matter of 
time before meth abuse moves into the region, he said.

Much of the meth is manufactured outside the United States, not in small 
labs such as those shut down in Maine. Gonzales said Mexico makes 60 
percent of the meth used in the United States.

He said China, which has supplied many of the pseudoephedrine products to 
Mexico, recently agreed to share information with the United States and 
will no longer send the products to Mexico unless Mexico can certify that 
the recipients are legitimate.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom