IOWA FACES UPHILL BATTLE IN WAR AGAINST DRUGS

State Faces Setbacks, But Drug War Rages On

It's been a tough year in Iowa's war on drugs.

Casualties mounted, and the bill got steeper. At year's end, Gov. Tom
Vilsack fired the man who helped formulate the state's anti-drug strategy.

"There were signs two years ago that something was working," said
Bruce Upchurch, deposed last month as Vilsack's drug-policy
coordinator. "Now the signs point in another direction."

Consider:

* The number of people who have sought treatment for methamphetamine
use in Iowa hit an all-time high.

* Police say they took nearly three times as much ecstasy off the
street this year as they did in 2001 - without putting a dent in the
supply.

* Signs of drug-fueled gang activity are on the upswing and might be
behind an unsolved double-murder in Des Moines.

* Officials are braced for the arrival of a more pure, more expensive
and more addictive form of meth called "ice."

Meanwhile, marijuana and cocaine have not gone away, said Ken Carter,
director of the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement.

"The older and traditional drugs are still prominent," he said.
"Ecstasy is up, meth is up, meth labs are up."

Upchurch, who once headed the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's
drug-interdiction effort in Burma and for years investigated major
international drug cartels, declined to speculate whether the lack of
success in Iowa led to his ouster. He was one of six state agency
heads shown the door by Vilsack as part of an administration
housecleaning to start the Democrat's second term.

Upchurch said he's "just a cop," with little interest in political
decisions. Still, his assessment of the drug war paints a dim view.

"The meth situation is not declining," he said. "Ecstasy is not
confined to the raves and clubs. It's out on the streets."

Vilsack declined to comment on why Upchurch was fired but acknowledged
that budget constraints are hampering Iowa's drug war.

"Iowa is not any different than the rest of the country," he said. "We
actually did put more resources into the fight, but the budget has
forced us to scale back.

"Still, we're ahead of where we were four years ago."

Vilsack said money was spent early in his first term to add laboratory
technicians, agents and training. And he pointed out a meeting last
fall in Sioux City where Midwest leaders shared what's working in the
war on meth.

But even the bright spots are tempered. The amount of meth seized by
state agents this year is down, Carter said, "probably because we are
involved in so many other drugs."

Ron White watches Iowa's war on drugs from the front
lines.

The 62-year-old Missouri man drives to Des Moines each weekend to
support his daughter, Robin White, who sits in the Polk County Jail
facing five years in prison on meth-related charges.

Robin White, 36, has battled her addiction for 10 years, her father
said. She has been in jail four times.

"My daughter is honest with me," Ron White said. "She wants to stop,
but she doesn't know how. You just don't break from it that easy."

Ron White, who lives in Golden, Mo., is making payments on his
daughter's mobile home and says he might move to Des Moines to support
her if she avoids prison.

"Give her a decent chance and put her in one of those programs where
she can work and improve herself," he said.

Eliminate the human voices, and America's drug war is reduced to
troubles across the country and some mind-numbing statistics:

* The federal government will spend more than $19.2 billion this year
to find illegal drugs and prosecute the offenders. State and local
governments will spend at least another $20 billion.

* Arrests for drug violations in 2002 are expected to exceed the
record of 1.5 million set in 2000.

* About 237,000 people nationwide will be jailed for drug violations
in 2002.

Each state has a similar story, only the drug of choice changes.
According the DEA:

* Nearly 20 people arrested recently in South Carolina were believed
to have made up a large-scale crack cocaine ring.

* Ten people in San Diego were indicted in October for the
distribution of ketamine, a "club drug" that was used in the
commission of several sexual assaults.

* Four pharmacies in Wash-tenaw County, Mich., were raided last week
as part of a crackdown on a growing market for illicit narcotic
pain-control medications.

* Tony Marcocci, a detective in Westmoreland County, Pa., testified
before a congressional committee Thursday about a frightening increase
in heroin use on the East Coast.

Iowa's drug worries run the gamut. For example, the amount of ecstasy
seized by Des Moines police increased from 36 pills in 2000 to 252 in
2001. Carter, of the state narcotics enforcement division, said the
street price has dropped from about $30 per tablet to $15, which "is
indicative of availability."

But federal drug officials state flatly that Iowa's primary problem
continues to be meth.

Robin White was one of 5,297 Iowans who sought treatment for meth last
year - 12.3 percent of the more than 42,000 people who reported to
alcohol and drug centers between June 30, 2001, and July 1, 2002, said
Janet Zwick of the Iowa Department of Public Health.

The U.S. Senate earlier this year approved a National Guard
Counterdrug School in Johnston that will cost $3 million to establish
and $5 million per year to maintain. The facility will offer narcotics
investigation and enforcement training for officers in 18 states.

Another $1 million was spent last year to create a 17-county
methamphetamine clandestine lab task force in south-central Iowa. The
move was initiated by the Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking
Area, which U.S. Attorney Stephen Rapp of Cedar Rapids said spent $12
million last year on meth prevention and education.

Vilsack said Iowa's drug-control policy office will move forward under
interim director Dale Woolery with a wary eye on Iowans' appetite for
meth.

"Work being done by law enforcement is good work. Treatment centers
are doing good work. But the same people are cycling through," Woolery
said. "Ideally, we would like to treat addicts for longer periods, but
that takes money, and there are no easy solutions. If we don't break
the cycle, we know it will continue."

Vilsack said resources must focus on "the demand side" of the
equation, where treatment and prevention come into play.

"You can have all the law enforcement in the world, but as long as
there's a profit and young people with low esteem who fall prey to
these peddlers of poison, you're going to have a problem," he said.

That's something Ron White learned several years ago. Now he prays
that his daughter will realize it, too. He believes treatment, not
prison, is the key.

"You don't put a drug addict out on the street with no help and expect
them to stay clean," he said.