TAKE WAR ON METH TO ANOTHER LEVEL

Methamphetamine is no longer flowing out of a meth lab located in a
home next door or a building down the street. Instead, it is
streaming across the U.S.-Mexican border and into the Portland
metropolitan area in seemingly greater quantities than before.

One possible response to this trend might be for citizens to throw up
their hands and say that all of Oregon's efforts to control
methamphetamine have been for naught - that it is futile to try to
stamp out this scourge.

That would be exactly the wrong reaction.

Rather, the latest news about meth should be viewed as evidence that
a focused and collaborative approach by citizens, legislators and
law-enforcement officers can make an appreciable difference in the
war against meth.

A recent article in The Outlook detailed the shift that has occurred
in meth trafficking in the two years since state legislators passed a
law making it more difficult to obtain medicines that contain the
main ingredient used to manufacture meth.

By at least one measure, the law has been a spectacular success - the
number of meth-lab busts, once a daily occurrence, has plummeted in
Oregon. But the progress hasn't been without unwelcome consequences.
Now that meth isn't available from local labs, Mexican drug cartels
have stepped in to increase supplies. And Portland area
law-enforcement officers say that just as much methamphetamine,
possibly even more, is available now.

That's why it's important that one victory - the virtual elimination
of labs in Oregon - must lead to a new round of action. It's a
fallacy to believe that nothing can be done to stop imported meth.

Even now, U.S. pressure on the Mexican government to crack down on
meth is having an effect: Prices of imported meth are up, and purity
is down. Oregon's congressional delegation must insist that the
pressure on Mexico remains unrelenting.

Similarly, the Oregon Legislature must revisit the issue and
determine how the state can combat imported meth. Lawmakers already
have increased Oregon State Police staffing - an agency that ought to
be involved in interrupting the transportation of meth into Oregon.

But surely the most effective tool against imported meth would be to
decrease demand. And that's where all citizens, especially parents,
can help by knowing the warning signs of meth use and by supporting
community-based education and treatment programs.