METH ABUSE CHALLENGES STATE, NATION

A miniscule percentage of America's population of 300 million lost
their homes to Hurricane Katrina, so therefore it's not really a
national problem.

Forest fires don't happen in New York City, so the federal government
shouldn't be terribly concerned about them.

That is the kind of faulty reasoning used in a conclusion of a report
released earlier this month by the Sentencing Project, an organization
that promotes alternatives to prison.

The report stated that national scope of methamphetamine abuse has
been exaggerated by the media and government officials.

The erroneous conclusion reflects an Eastern perspective. In fact, the
problem of meth varies across the nation.

Because it has generally affected Eastern communities less than
Western, it hasn't received the national attention that the Sentencing
Project criticizes until the past couple of years.

Montanans have been coping with the ill and increasing effects of meth
for more than a decade.

The majority of Yellowstone County children placed in foster care
because of abuse or neglect have parents who are addicted to meth. For
those who choose treatment, it is a long process that usually requires
a year of work. The Gazette has told of some of these successful
recovery stories, but there are also many tragedies -- lives wasted
and families permanently broken.

The Gazette advocates primary prevention (encourage people to avoid
illegal drug use) and secondary prevention (make effective treatment
accessible) along with supporting law enforcement.

Montana's prisons are overflowing because so many offenders fail to
follow requirements of probation and parole and wind up behind bars.
The No. 1 reason for their failure, according to state corrections
officials, is continuing meth abuse.

Meth presents public health risks that some other illegal drugs don't.
Clandestine labs have created thousands of small toxic waste sites in
houses, apartments and motels.

The Drug Enforcement Administration estimates that up to 7 pounds of
toxic waste is generated for every pound of meth produced. The fumes
generated from cooking are poisonous.

Many labs have been found when they exploded.

In Yellowstone County, scientific research has found that meth users
here are were far more likely than those in other communities studied
to inject the drug. Injecting drug use opens up a whole other range of
public health threats, including the risk of spreading AIDS and hepatitis.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, an annual survey of U.S. public and
private high school students, gives an indication of how the extent of
meth use varies. Comparing responses of students by state, the
percentage who said they had used meth ranged from 2.6 percent to 11.7
percent.

The percentage of students saying they had used cocaine ranged from a
low of 2 percent to a high of 7.9 percent.

This doesn't mean that cocaine is a lower risk; it means that the
predominant illegal drug varies from place to place.

Meth is epidemic where we live. Montanans are working together to
reduce the manufacture and use of illegal meth. They should expect
that federal policy and national debate recognize that this drug is a
significant part of the U.S. drug problem.