DRUG CZAR TARGETS METH CRISIS

America is winning the war against cocaine, but that drug is being replaced
quickly by chemically produced methamphetamine, White House drug czar Barry
McCaffrey told state government officials here Tuesday.

"Ten years ago, methamphetamine was a minor, West Coast, biker-gang drug,"
McCaffrey told reporters. "Now it's a dominant drug problem in the rural
Midwest, Hawaii, Idaho and Arizona."

While casual cocaine use has dropped by as much as 70 percent, the drug
czar said, methamphetamine use and production are spreading throughout the
country.

"It has actually replaced cocaine as the principal emergency room threat in
Southern California and Hawaii," McCaffrey said. "We're very worried about
it, and I think we're going to see more of this."

McCaffrey made his comments at the annual gathering of the Council of State
Governments, a nonpartisan group that's been meeting at the San Antonio
Marriott Rivercenter hotel since Friday.

The organization devoted the last day of its five-day meeting to discussing
drug policy.

During one panel discussion, Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall gave a
grim account of methamphetamine use in the Midwest.

Because the drug is relatively easy and cheap to manufacture, hundreds of
people are being injured each year in makeshift labs cropping up in
kitchens and homes all over Kansas, Stovall said.

"Spending $100 at Wal-Mart could let you net $23,000 in product," she said.

In response, Kansas lawmakers want to stiffen criminal penalties relating
to the drug.

All of the speakers agreed government policy should focus on rehabilitation
and curbing drug use among children.

McCaffrey said he was concerned by the message being sent to children by
advocacy groups urging the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

"Pain management is not best done with a joint or two vodkas -- it just
doesn't ring true," he said. "Doctors should decide about medicine."

McCaffrey, who played videotape from four public service messages designed
to stop drug abuse, said the number of eighth-graders taking drugs has
tripled in the past six years.

"The challenge to America is to keep kids from about the sixth grade to the
12th grade from smoking pot and abusing alcohol," he said.

Checked-by: Richard Lake