THE SCARY REALITY OF METH

Pia Marshall awoke to the familiar sound of her son's voice calling
out from his nearby bedroom.

Trudging down the hallway on a pre-dawn morning last March, Pia
fetched her 6-year-old and guided him toward the bathroom. Passing a
window, the Redmond mom of three caught the unmistakable sight of a
man creeping up her driveway.

"Call the police!" Pia hollered repeatedly, instinctively pulling her
son toward her.

But as Scott Marshall awoke and grabbed a telephone, the ski cap and
sweatshirt-wearing stranger approached instead of retreating. To her
horror, Pia saw the intruder's silhouette through the front door's
frosted windows. He jostled the handle, attempting to enter the house.

Within moments the Redmond police had arrived, along with a neighbor
whose alarm and barking dog had been set off by the same intruder.

The police informed Pia that it had taken three officers to subdue the
methamphetamine-drugged burglar. In fact, the police theorized, the
man could have come from a suspected meth lab just a half-mile away.

Pia's story offers a sober reminder that methamphetamine is a drug
that knows no socioeconomic or geographic boundaries. It can't be
dismissed as a problem that impacts "someone else's neighborhood" or
is relegated to seedy, back alleys.

Four years ago I promised to address the growth of meth addiction and
its associated crimes, from burglary to identity theft.

I assembled a task force of police, prosecutors, treatment providers,
and experts-not to endlessly study the problem (as happens too often
in government) but to find solutions. At the same time I launched a
continuing project to personally speak with thousands of students
throughout the state about the risks of trying meth even once.

"We then wrote, and the Legislature unanimously passed, laws that have
aggressively checked and reversed the spread of meth. We channeled
millions of dollars annually into the investigation of drug labs, the
prosecution of traffickers, and the treatment of the addicts who would
accept it.

We also restricted the sale of the chemicals used to make meth-a fact
you've no doubt noticed when purchasing pseudoephedrine (a key meth
ingredient) at your local drug or grocery store. This over-the-counter
drug is now under lock and key--a small inconvenience that pays a big
public safety dividend.

As a result of these actions, police report that meth labs and
associated toxic dumpsites are down from nearly 1,400 incidents in
2004 to fewer than 25 so far this year. The price of meth has more
than doubled and its purity is down by over half - twice the price for
half the potency, on average.

I'm proud of the progress my office, and our state, have made in
fighting meth. But more remains to be done. Meth is still trafficked
into our state from Canada, Mexico and elsewhere.

And as we've turned the corner on meth addiction, we've seen surging
prescription drug abuse and related deaths. That's why I've directed
$200,000 from a settlement my office reached with the makers of
OxyContin toward two statewide youth prevention summits aimed at
combating this new, deadly challenge. My office's consumer protection
work is also funding a statewide prescription drug-monitoring program,
to stop abusers from hitting multiple pharmacies to fill multiple
prescriptions.

Working together, we'll continue to make the state of Washington a
safer place for our families.