Pubdate: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) Copyright: 2005 St. Louis Post-Dispatch Contact: http://www.stltoday.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/418 Author: Philip Dine Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) CUTS COULD HURT WAR ON METH, CRITICS SAY WASHINGTON - The administration's planned cuts in funding for local law enforcement programs that are key to the fight against methamphetamine would make Missouri, Illinois and the Midwest more dangerous, say legislators and law enforcement officials. Of about 28 police task forces in Missouri that combat the spiraling meth problem, as many as two dozen would not survive the cuts, says Maj. James Keathley, commander of the Criminal Investigation Bureau for the Missouri Highway Patrol. Virtually all task forces in the state's rural areas, where the meth problem is the most insidious, would be wiped out, some instantly and the others within a year, Keathley said. "That would have a devastating effect on us in Missouri, especially with the meth epidemic that we currently have in our state," said Keathley, president of the National Alliance of State Drug Enforcement Agencies. Missouri has led the nation in meth lab seizures the past four years and stood 50 percent above the next-highest state over the past two years, he said. This year, meth production in Missouri has risen so high that on the average, 11 labs are being seized daily. "The administration was wrong to propose those cuts. We need to be doing more, not less," said Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., who says he will fight President George W. Bush's plans to slash funding for some programs and eliminate others. The national drug-fighting budget faces a 56 percent cut, from $227 million to $100 million. Tom Riley, chief spokesman for the administration's Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the White House was being criticized for taking a fiscally prudent stand and seeking to cut "politically popular programs." "We're trying to be responsible, and we're getting beat up for it," Riley said. The programs being cut have expanded to so many states that instead of being strategically targeted attacks on heavy drug areas, as originally intended, they have essentially become revenue-sharing programs with local officials, Riley said. "We don't think that's the best use of taxpayer dollars," Riley said. "We had some difficult budget decisions to make this year to comply with the president's desire to cut the deficit." Yet the moves could have major consequences, not just in Missouri but in other states, as the proliferation of small meth labs in Missouri spreads to its neighbors, says Dwayne Nichols. He is Missouri's administrator of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program. "It is spreading all over the country. It's now in Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana; it's spread down into Arkansas. For the small clandestine labs, it sort of has spread out from Missouri," said Nichols, who spent 31 years with the Drug Enforcement Administration. As a result, legislators from a number of other states also are up in arms over the cuts, including Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Max Baucus, D-Mont. Talent is working with Grassley to try to restore funding. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., will hold a budget markup today on the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program, which falls under an Appropriations Committee panel that Bond chairs. The House voted two weeks ago to restore the funding to $227 million, and Bond is overseeing efforts to do so in the Senate. "This program provides valuable resources to local law enforcement in the fight against meth and other dangerous, illegal drugs," Bond said. "The last thing we should be doing is cutting a proven tool that helps local communities." Cpl. Jason Grellner, commander of the Franklin County Drug Task Force and a deputy sheriff, says he's concerned the administration will shift funds to combat narcotics at the U.S. borders and in places such as Afghanistan. "The cuts across the board are just going to kill domestic narcotics efforts," said Grellner, Eastern District director for the Missouri Narcotics Officers Association. Along with the cuts in the High Intensity program, the Byrne/Justice Assistance Grants program would be eliminated, and the surviving High Intensity program would be moved from the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy to the Justice Department. That could make it easier for the White House to direct money toward anti-drug efforts overseas, in Afghanistan - a producer of poppies, used to make heroin - and elsewhere, Grellner said. "There will be a loss of control. Once it's under the Department of Justice, it can be reallocated to the (Drug Enforcement Administration) or FBI or any of the other programs," Grellner said. "We have been fighting the drug war outside our country for two decades," against cocaine production in South America, heroin and opium elsewhere, with little effect, he said. Illinois State Police Lt. Mark Bramlett, special investigations commander for the Metro East area and director of the narcotics effort in the area, says that "meth continues to be a huge problem here in the Metro East." Meth abuse has a devastating effect on families, including "a lot of child abuse, child neglect and domestic abuse," and the proposed cuts would reduce the ability of police to combat the problem, he said. Just one group under his command, the Illinois State Police Meth Response Teams, will handle "somewhere in the area of 200 labs in the Metro East area this year," Bramlett said. Granite City Assistant Police Chief Richard Miller said that in his city, which has a significant meth problem, budget cuts would force a decision on whether the department can afford to continue to participate in local drug task forces, which have helped make the problem somewhat manageable in recent years. Overall, eliminating the Byrne program would cost Illinois about $14.3 million a year, law enforcement officials said, while Missouri stands to lose about $9 million from that program. Most of the High Intensity program money for Illinois goes to the Chicago area. The administration in no way minimizes the seriousness of the meth problem, Riley said, and it appreciates the role Bond and Talent have played in helping lead the fight against the drug. He added that the White House would soon announce major initiatives in that campaign, though he wouldn't discuss them. But the president has to put money where it will be most effective and where there is accountability, Riley said. He noted that overall drug funding went up this year in the president's budget and that there were no cuts in areas that would have been easy to cut because of the lack of a voting constituency, including drug treatment and rehabilitation. When the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program began 14 years ago, Riley said, there were five regional programs around the country; now there are 28. Both Missouri and Illinois entered the program in the mid-1990s. "The progression is to turn the entire country into a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. That's the momentum of this program; that is why there's a bit of a philosophical difference between the administration and some people in Congress about the nature of that program." The move to the Justice Department helps coordination with law enforcement, Riley said. Nichols worries about the practical impact on Missouri, which now gets $4.2 million a year in funding from the High Intensity program alone. Among the effects, he says, "it would cause the loss of nine chemists, eight prosecutors, three analysts" in forensic labs that already "are just overwhelmed." Federal drug officials are underestimating the danger posed by small clandestine meth labs to families, communities, the economy and the environment in the rural Midwest, as well as the extent to which the High Intensity program has sparked cooperation among state, local and federal agencies, Nichols said. Keathley, of the Missouri Highway Patrol, said the outcome of Bond's hearing this week will go a long way toward determining whether the funds are eventually restored. - ---