Stupid monkey president is so obssessed with the "War on Terra" (which, by the way, we are apparently losing... who's suprised there?) Meanwhile, our country goes to hell in a handbasket. I'm more scared of tweakers than terrorists --Published Monday October 31, 2005
Congress hears alarm in Midlands over meth
BY LORI NITSCHKE
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
WASHINGTON - Nebraska Trooper Shane Flynn recalls his surprise when a speaker at a 1990s drug conference predicted that the crack cocaine devastation seen in Omaha and Lincoln would seem tame if methamphetamine abuse continued to grow.
"I could not have imagined anything worse," Flynn said of crack.
Since then, Flynn and his colleagues have seen "crank," as meth is known, take over as the state's No. 1 drug problem. They have seen businessmen, mothers of young children and homeless people become addicted.
Troopers have shut down hundreds of home labs where meth had been produced from common household and farm products, including cold pills, antifreeze and anhydrous ammonia.
And they have seen hundreds of children, often neglected or abused, taken from drug-addicted parents and put in foster care or left with relatives.
They're not alone. The western two-thirds of the country has seen explosive growth in the use and distribution of methamphetamine and an increasing infiltration of Mexican drug cartels into the trafficking system.
States like Nebraska and Iowa are beginning to see the number of seized labs level off, but Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia are witnessing explosive growth.
Flynn and law enforcement officials across the country are asking the federal government to step in.
"I don't believe the states in and of themselves can deal with this alone," Flynn said when he was in Washington recently to brief Congress on the experience of law enforcement in fighting meth.
Increasingly, members of Congress agree with Flynn, and dozens have introduced bills to address it.
Lobbyists and Midlands congressmen involved in the anti-meth effort are optimistic that Congress will pass a measure this fall addressing at least some of the problems.
A comprehensive effort could be hampered by conflicting opinions on two issues: How heavy should prison terms be for those trafficking in small amounts of the drug? And how much inconvenience should normal buyers of cold and allergy medications have to endure to make sure meth cooks don't get their ingredients?
Rep. Tom Osborne, R-Neb., said Congress has to pass tough measures.
"If we just kind of give it a wink and a nod, we're really inviting disaster," he said. "Meth is the most powerful, most addictive drug that we've run across."
The bill that appears most likely to move through Congress this year is intended to keep ingredients out of the hands of meth cooks.
The Senate has passed a measure that would require retailers to place cold and allergy medications containing pseudoephedrine, a common meth ingredient, behind pharmacy counters and limit each purchaser to 7.5 grams, or about 250 pills, per month.
The bill mimics laws in Iowa and Oklahoma that place strong restrictions on the medications. It would replace less stringent state laws, including Nebraska's, which limits purchases to 1.4 grams of pseudoephedrine per 24-hour period. Stronger state laws could stand.
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, has introduced the Meth Lab Eradication Act, which would set national standards as strict as those in Iowa.
Placing medications behind store checkout counters is backed by some drug-control advocates because, they say, drug addicts often steal the pills from shelves.
There is disagreement in Congress about whether the pills should be stored on a regular store counter, near the cigarettes at a drug store for instance, or in the pharmacy.
The latter proposal is controversial even among strong advocates of anti-meth laws because they feel it makes it too hard for consumers to purchase cold products when pharmacy windows are closed.
Other bills address trafficking by drug gangs, creating environmental standards for cleaning up toxic waste left by labs and boosting research for treatment.
Contact the Omaha World-Herald newsroom
Copyright ©2005 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or distributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
can't win the "War on Drugs" for the same reason we can't win the "War on Terror" -- they don't want to look into WHY people become drug addicts, they just assume they are bad, immoral people and lock them up. Republicans don't want to address the social and economic problems that lead to drug use and crime. Just like they don't want to examine what it is that makes terrorists hate us so much... for every one we kill, there's 20 more to take their place... but it couldn't possibly be anything we've done wrong...
posted by decemberx 11:54 AM[edit]
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