GOAL OF DRUG SUMMIT IS TO DEVELOP STRATEGY TO FIGHT METH IN MISSOURI

"We'll never be able to arrest our way out of this problem."

Springfield Police Chief Lynn Rowe

Hundreds of police officers, doctors, social workers and activists will
look for solutions to Missouri's fast-growing methamphetamine trade at a
drug summit meeting that starts today in Springfield, Mo.

The two-day conference is organized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration. The agency's administrator, Asa Hutchinson, will address
attendees today. The former Arkansas representative was a member of the
Congressional Meth Caucus and has said he wants to make fighting meth a top
priority for the agency.

Hutchinson also pushed the agency to start regional drug conferences that
focus on education, prevention and treatment - all relatively new areas for
the DEA, which concentrates on arresting traffickers and interrupting drug
supply lines. Previous summit meetings have been held in North Charleston,
S.C., Allentown, Pa., and Portsmouth, Va.

DEA Special Agent Pam Brown coordinates the meetings. She said that the
agency wasn't turning its back on traditional drug-interdiction efforts but
that it is putting greater emphasis on demand-reduction programs.

"We realize that the (drug war) is going to take more than just law
enforcement," Brown said. "Reducing demand obviously is valuable to
communities, but it's also beneficial to enforcement. It makes our job easier."

Brown said that the goal of the meeting is a strategic drug-fighting plan
that is tailored for a specific area. At the Springfield conference, she
said this would likely mean taking on methamphetamine, which - according to
many rural sheriffs and drug experts - is the most serious crime problem in
outstate Missouri.

Missouri surpassed California last year to lead the nation with 2,130 raids
on clandestine meth labs or discoveries of related ingredients. Crime
figures compiled by the Missouri Highway Patrol and local police forces
show the state has already topped that figure this year.

Southwest Missouri has been particularly hard-hit by the drug and related
violence. Springfield Police Chief Lynn Rowe agreed that drugs, especially
meth, can't be tackled by police alone.

Rowe says that without a plan for reducing demand, police are put "in the
unenviable position of locking up people that can't get off an addiction
cycle" and that "we'll never be able to arrest our way out of this problem."