ARIZONA'S WAR ON METH: WHAT ABOUT ALL THE OTHER DRUGS?

Speed kills! And so do a lot of other drugs. But speed, now known as
meth, continues to be the emotional rallying cry for politicians who
have jumped on the anti-drug headline-grabbing bandwagon. And Tuesday
night's statewide showing of "Crystal Darkness" brought them out in
droves.

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, Attorney General Terry Goddard,
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Phoenix
Mayor Phil Gordon were all echoing emotional testimonials on
methamphetamine. They sounded like President Bush and his prewar
weapons of mass destruction rant.

Same clowns, different circus.

"Crystal Darkness" was produced by Michael Reynolds, the owner of
Global Studio, a Nevada advertising and marketing agency. In a letter
to a Valley paper published two days before the broadcast, Reynolds
told meth horror stories. The newspaper that printed his letter is
owned by the same company that owns one of the stations that broadcast
Reynolds production.

Reynolds wrote, "There is a battle our nation is losing. Child by
child, city by city, state by state. We're losing because most people
don't even realize that we're at war. The enemy is described as an
epidemic, a plague . a weapon of mass destruction. It's
methamphetamine. Can a drug really destroy a nation? This one can.
Meth marketers are reaching into elementary schools and packaging meth
with Mickey Mouse stickers. Children are just one meth hit away from
prostitution."

Are we really teetering on meth infamy? Is the message
real?

It is a message that is been pushed since governments forced cold
pills containing higher levels of pseudoephedrine behind the counter
in 2006. Unfortunately more than 90 percent of meth is made in
cartel-owned Mexican labs and it is just one product in a long menu of
illegal drugs. About 700 metric tons of heroin was produced last year.
Cartels make more than $100 billion dollars a year from illegal
enterprises.

Meth abuse has been marketed by some to hit a special emotional
button.

In Portland, Ore., the Willamette Week newspaper started asking
questions about meth; reporters asked questions about the claims made
by the political and commercial doomsday crowd and The Oregonian, the
state's biggest newspaper.

A March 2006 story by Angela Valdez ("Meth Madness: How The Oregonian
manufactured an epidemic, politicians bought in and you're paying")
raised questions and brought honest, nonemotional answers. Dr. Jim
Thayer, the director of a Portland addiction treatment center, said that
a feeling of hysteria has been created and he's worried meth will take
away resources used to treat other addictions.

Multnomah County Addiction Program Director Ray Hudson cautioned
against blanket statements regarding meth use and immediate addiction.
He referred to the 1937 movie "Reefer Madness," which linked smoking
marijuana to an "instantaneous plunge into crime and debauchery.
Trying to scare people with things that really aren't true is
self-defeating."

Cocaine and the non-medical use of prescriptions drugs far exceeds
meth use by many times. Flagstaff police recently busted a crack
cocaine ring and Arizona Department of Public Safety officers seized
20 pounds of heroin.

In August 2005, New York Times writer John Tierney reported that meth
addiction occurs in only 5 percent of Americans who have sampled the
drug, compared with 3 percent in those who have sampled heroin. That
puts a dent in the "one time and you're hooked" argument.

In a June 2006 Fox News report, "Study Busts Meth Myths, Says Abuse Is
Not An Epidemic or Even Widespread," it was reported "meth use is rare
in most of the United States, not the raging epidemic described by
politicians and the media. Meth is a dangerous drug but among the
least commonly used. Overheated rhetoric, unsupported assertions, and
factual errors about meth, lead to poor decisions about how to spend
public dollars combating drug addiction."

In 2007, there were 43,360 enrollments in Arizona drug treatment
programs. Only 19 percent of those said meth was their drug of choice.
Sure meth is problem in Arizona, but what about the other 81 percent
of drug abusers and addicts?

After working drug investigations for 17 years, I can repeat every
horror story told about meth Wednesday night about people who were
addicted to heroin, cocaine, prescription drugs and alcohol.

We're a nation of drug abusers and there's always going to be someone
out there to meet the demand. Meth is just one more demonstrative
failure of our losing war against all drugs and addiction. And it's
one more success for the purveyors and marketers of illegal drugs. The
bottom line: Meth isn't the only drug in town.