GET CONTROL OF CRYSTAL METH INGREDIENTS: U.S. OFFICIAL

REGINA -- North Dakota's attorney general says he doesn't want Canada
to be swamped by the "tidal wave" of crystal meth abuse that has hit
his state.

And his message hit home with the western Canadian politicians and
officials attending the special meeting of western and northern
leaders, which convened Friday in Regina to deal with the crystal meth
issue.

Since the highly addictive drug first appeared in North Dakota in
1995, the number of meth labs stopped by police rose to a high of 297
in 2003.

So far this year, 140 meth labs have been discovered in the
state.

"It's the most serious law-enforcement issue ever faced in the history
of North Dakota. We have clandestine meth labs by the dozen that we're
busting on a daily basis. This is something that started in the
western part of the United States, has creeped across the Midwest, and
now I'm afraid Canada is seeing this as well," Wayne Stenehjem told
reporters.

Stenehjem's main advice was in fact adopted by the politicians and
officials, who agreed to put tough controls on the sale of cold
medicine that contains ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, the one necessary
ingredient for meth.

At the start of June, a law came into effect in North Dakota that
restricts the amount of cold medicine that can be sold to two packets
and forbids its sale to minors.

Purchasers must also provide government identification and the store
must keep a log on who buys the cold medicine.

The North Dakota law is modelled on one in place in Oklahoma that
helped reduce meth use in that state by about 80 per cent in a year.

"In my state, North Dakota, there are stories everyday of aggravated
assault, meth labs taken down, even homicides as a result of the meth
epidemic. We explained to people this is a huge problem for us,
everybody has to join in and be willing to accept some minor
inconvenience in exchange for placing major roadblocks in the way of
those who want to use these chemicals to manufacture meth," said
Stenehjem, a Republican first elected attorney general in 2000.

The state has also put some restrictions on the chemicals such as
anhydrous ammonia that are used to make meth with the cough medicine.

Stenehjem said he's concerned that those who cook the crystal meth
will cross the Canadian border to get the necessary ingredients, or
even set up their labs, if restrictions aren't put in place in Canada.

Premier Lorne Calvert said Stenehjem played a valuable role at the
conference.

"This was a very, very powerful message . . . it was a message that
told us to get ahead of the curve," he told reporters at the closing
press conference.

North Dakota has doubled the budget for its prison system in the last
seven years, to $129 million, mostly because of meth, he said.

Around 60 per cent of the male inmates in the system are crystal meth
addicts. The state also had to build a new prison for women, with
almost all female inmates having some connection to the drug.

Stenehjem came to the meeting at the invitation of Saskatchewan Health
Minister John Nilson.

He said he agrees with Nilson's assessment that the province's crystal
meth problem is about five years behind North Dakota's.

"If you don't get a handle on it now, you're going to have real
problems," said Stenehjem.