PRISONS NO CURE FOR METH, IOWA TOLD

Prisons Not Answer To Meth, Iowa Is Told

+ U.S. drug czar says aggressive prevention and treatment must be the
state's tactics.

If Iowa wants to loosen the strong hold methamphetamine has on the state,
the U.S. drug czar says, authorities should devote more time and money to
treating the addicts and educating the children.

"The answer is not to see how many people we can lock up," said Gen. Barry
McCaffrey, the federal drug czar.

"The answer is how do we get a vigorous prevention program at the front
line and then aggressively use treatment programs for the chronically
addicted, all of whom are involved in criminal operations and most of whom
are selling drugs."

McCaffrey has watched the meth scourge spread from Mexico and California
into the Midwestern states.

Last week, McCaffrey accompanied Vice President Al Gore to Iowa, where
federal and state officials predict the methamphetamine problem will get
worse before it subsides.

"What I pray is that we could actually handle this problem and have it
completely turned around in five years," McCaffrey said in an interview
with the Des Moines Sunday Register. "If we don't, we're not going to
believe the kind of damage it does."

Iowa is not alone in its struggle with methamphetamine. But federal
statistics from 1996, the most recent year available, show more people were
treated for addiction in Iowa than any state but California. Meanwhile, the
number of meth lab seizures in Iowa soared from 63 in 1997 to 320 last year.

At first blush, such a dramatic increase in the number of lab seizures
might seem like the meth problem is well on its way to being solved. But
state drug agents say they are spending the majority of their time working
on labs - the smallest

part of the problem.

Up to 90 percent of Iowa's meth supply is smuggled into the state, not
cooked in the makeshift laboratories found in garages, wooded parks and
desolate rural areas.

"For less than 10 percent of the problem, we're spending a considerable
amount of time on labs," said Ken Carter, director of Iowa's Division of
Narcotics Enforcement. The labs, often filled with anhydrous ammonia, ether
and other toxic chemicals, are dangerous and potentially deadly.

"We have to respond to that as a public-safety issue," Carter said. "But we
should be focusing our efforts on the importation of the drugs."

Late last year, Carter asked Governor-elect Tom Vilsack for permission to
hire 18 drug agents. The state now has 26 agents, but some of the positions
are not filled, Carter said.

When the new state budget is written this year, Vilsack and the
Republican-controlled Legislature say methamphetamine will be one of the
highest priorities. They have pledged to provide more money for
drug-treatment facilities and to pay for programs that encourage kids not
to use the drug.

Vilsack also has proposed life prison sentences for people who sell meth to
children. While legislative leaders say they support the plan, it has been
criticized by others as being a quick but ineffective solution.

Vilsack also is considering creating more drug courts in Iowa, spokesman
Ron Parker said Friday. Vilsack plans to explore whether the specialized
drug courts could be established in rural areas, Parker said.

Iowa's first drug court, part of a national program to combine treatment
with punishment, was established in 1996 in Polk County District Court.
Since then, officials say the rigorous yearlong program has been more
effective than most other drug-treatment options, because the defendant
must find a job and for at least a year is closely supervised by a judge
and a team of other officials.

The White House drug czar's office hopes to increase the country's 400 drug
courts to 1,000, aides to McCaffrey said last

week. They've devoted $40 million to the project this year.

McCaffrey said officials in Iowa and other states should look for as many
alternatives to prison as possible. It does little good to lock someone up,
he said, without providing the extensive treatment needed to overcome a
methamphetamine addiction.