PRIORITY SHOULD BE METH, NOT POT

On first reading, Thursday's big local news, "11 people arrested in pot
raids on 20 homes," brought a small measure of relief. In the post-Sept. 11
world it was a sign that life does go on, that days have become more normal
than abnormal.

Were this the '60s or '70s, the pot bust in King and Pierce counties --
netting at least 1,687 plants, $13,000 and more than 100 guns -- might
actually be worthy of fanfare. When the public information officer said,
"We made a real impact today," he might be taken seriously.
But not in 2001, when the scariest drug around by far is not marijuana but
methamphetamine.

At a time when Washington state still lacks a comprehensive plan to reduce
the supply of the easily and cheaply produced superstimulant, the fact that
one marijuana raid commanded the efforts of more than 125 officers from a
slew of law enforcement agencies is a sorry signal that government's
priorities are out of whack.

On the day that much was being made about marijuana, the state Department
of Ecology announced it had already cleaned up more meth labs this year --
1,480 -- than in all of last year. The toxic tally is expected to surpass
2,000 by year's end.

And that's nothing new. For several years running meth labs -- despoilers
of homes and hotels, rivers and streams, public and private lands -- have
outdone themselves. That's given the state the unenviable rank of second
behind California in terms of labs busted.

It's not only the labs -- expensive, dangerous and time-consuming to clean
up as they are. In terms of collateral damage, marijuana can't begin to
measure up to meth in rate of addiction, degradation of the body and mind
and havoc wreaked on families of its slaves.

Faced with what is arguably an untenable question, a judge wise in the ways
of this illicit drug will tell you children are far better off in the care
of adults who smoke dope than inject, snort, eat or smoke meth. Social
workers concur, noting meth addicts tend to forget even that they have
children.

Those who would read this opinion as any sort of endorsement of marijuana
or a proposal that law enforcement turn its back on huge growing operations
or felonious activities associated with them (like stolen guns) are
mistaken. Marijuana's only redeeming value is that it helps mitigate the
suffering of some chronically ill people.

But it's nowhere near as dangerous a threat to Washington -- its families,
its environment, its economy -- as meth. It warrants much less attention
because meth warrants far more.