OREGON FACES ITS OWN WAR ON DRUGS

Top federal drug enforcement and policy officials toured Oregon Friday,
touting new plans and reviewing old ones.

Asa Hutchinson, director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, made the
second stop on a 32-state tour to increase awareness of the growing problem
of methamphetamine abuse.

"Oregon is typical in the sense that you have methamphetamine that is
locally produced in small quantities," Hutchinson said. "And it's also
typical that you have meth that is brought in from the super-labs in
California. What is unique and different in Oregon is that there is a
growing number of super-labs that are actually here."

Meanwhile, John P. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control
Policy, was in Oregon to tout President George W. Bush's national drug
strategy and review existing programs that receive federal money, such as
Portland's drug court.

Walters, the nation's "Drug Czar," said Bush wants to use a combination of
treatment, enforcement and education to reduce drug use by 10 percent in
the next two years and 25 percent in the next five years.

"There are too many people in America using drugs," he told the editorial
board of The Oregonian.

After making separate appearances in the morning, Hutchinson and Walters
joined up in the afternoon to conduct an aerial tour of meth labs that have
been raided in Marion County. They kicked off National Drug Court Month in
Salem and spoke in Portland at a dinner sponsored by the Oregon
Partnership, a non-profit alcohol and drug prevention group.

Hutchinson, visiting the state at the request of Rep. Darlene Hooley,
D-Ore., said Interstate 5, with its easy access up and down the coast, and
Oregon's close proximity to Canada have contributed to the increase in
methamphetamine production.

Pseudoephedrine, one of the ingredients in manufacturing meth, is
unregulated in Canada, Hutchinson said. Meth-makers transport the drug
along I-5, he said, increasingly setting up labs in Oregon rather than
taking the drugs all the way to California.

"A month ago, at a lab seized here in Oregon, they found 5,000 bottles of
pseudoephedrine from Canada," he said.

Hutchinson hailed Oregon for passing laws making it more difficult for
smaller manufacturers to get pseudoephedrine and increasing the penalties
for making meth.

"Oregon should be applauded for really exemplary legislation," he said.

In his national tour, Hutchinson plans to address each state's
methamphetamine problem and discuss solutions.

In Oregon, methamphetamine use increased by 34 percent from 1995 to 1997.
From 1997 to 2000, 41 people from Oregon died from methamphetamine use,
according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Walters said nationwide drug numbers are a big concern to Bush,
particularly juvenile drug abuse. Of the 4.5 million people with drug
problems, 23 percent are teens, he said.

In February, Bush announced he would focus not just on stemming the
production of drugs but on attacking drug use as well. That's the policy
behind a series of ads stating that money spent on drugs ends up supporting
terrorist groups that sell drugs to fund their activities.

"We just want people to take responsibility for the choices they make,"
Walters said.

In addition to educational programs, the Bush plan seeks to increase money
for law enforcement and treatment of drug abusers, Walters said.

"I certainly don't think that a jail cell is a treatment bed," he said.

Walters said that at the time of his hiring last year, Bush suggested he
watch the movie, "Traffic," which stars Michael Douglas as a newly
appointed drug czar who discovers his daughter is an addict.

Walters acknowledged that the movie was powerful but said it seemed to say
the war on drugs was hopeless, a message that undermines the effort to
fight drugs.

"I think it's too negative," he said. "We believe (Bush's goals of drug use
reduction) are achievable."