Pubdate: Mon, 19 Sep 2005
Source: The Daily News (Longview, WA)
Copyright: 2005 The Daily News
Contact:   http://www.tdn.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3922
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

FIGHT AGAINST METH DESERVES OUR PRIORITY	

With great fanfare, the U.S. Senate on Thursday approved legislation 
to restrict over-the-counter sale of cold remedies used to make 
methamphetamine. News of the Senate vote may have given readers in 
the Pacific Northwest and a large number of other states a sense of deja vu.

Oregon has already done this --- and one better. Last month, Oregon 
became the first state in the nation to require a prescription for 
the purchase of cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, the key 
ingredient for the manufacture of meth.

Washington imposed restrictions on over-the-counter sales of these 
medicines in the state last spring. More than a year before that, 
Oklahoma approved a bill that became the model for subsequent bills 
in many other states, including Washington.

None of this is to say the Senate-approved legislation has no value. 
We welcome the prospect of nationwide restrictions of 
over-the-counter sales of these medicines. A piecemeal, 
state-by-state approach leaves would-be meth manufacturers too many 
options. But a federal government that was a little quicker on its 
feet would be a more productive partner in the states' efforts to 
combat this drug.

In truth, the federal government has lagged far behind state and 
county governments both in recognizing the problem methamphetamine 
abuse poses and responding to it.

Until very recently, officials at the White House Office of National 
Drug Control Policy insisted that marijuana was the drug that posed 
the biggest threat to the nation. This was the official line even as 
alarms were sounding in virtually every state over an explosion of 
meth abuse and related crime.

The office as come around of late, persuaded by pleas from state 
capitols and surveys showing local and state law enforcement agencies 
all consider meth to be their biggest problem. But federal funding 
has yet to follow, which is why this and other communities are moving 
ahead with local tax proposals to combat epidemic meth abuse. 
Incredibly, the new federal budget still proposes to cut more than 
$800 million from the assistance it has provided local law 
enforcement to combat illegal drug use.

Budgets are stretched by the continuing costs of operations in Iraq 
and Afghanistan and now the prospect of spending tens of billions of 
federal tax dollars to help the Gulf Coast recover from Hurricane 
Katrina. But the fight against meth abuse deserves some priority.

We like Arizona Sen. John McCain's proposal for helping to fund the 
hurricane recovery effort --- give back some the pork approved 
earlier as part of the massive federal transportation bill. There's 
more than enough pork there to help states and counties fight meth 
abuse, as well.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman