SOUDER CHIDES BUSH RESPONSE TO METH

Says Lack Of Enthusiasm Rankles Congress

President Bush risks losing congressional support for some aspects of
his anti-drug program because the White House downplays the
seriousness of the meth epidemic, Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, said Friday.

He said members of Congress " Republicans and Democrats alike" are
frustrated at the administration's proposal to kill the program that
underwrites local drug task forces and efforts to reduce money for areas
that have special drug problems.

All the newest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas are trying to cope with
meth, Souder told members of the Bush administration at a hearing he
conducted.

Members of Congress are so dismayed by the White House's lack of enthusiasm
for fighting meth that no one was willing to go to bat for money for the
anti-drug advertising campaign, he said.

Last year, House members won an additional $30 million for the program,
provided the money was used for ads denouncing meth, Souder said, but that
didn't happen.

So this year, when a House committee cut $20 million from the
administration's $120 million request for the ad campaign, not a single
member of Congress was willing to plead the administration's case, Souder
said.

"There has to be more responsiveness," he said.

Souder's complaints were echoed by representatives of anti-drug
witnesses who said the Bush administration's plan to reduce meth
use is weak, doesn't take into account the devastation the drug
has created in some regions and ignores the experience and information
of local police and anti-drug groups.

The White House issued a report this month on its strategy for curbing
meth and prescription drug abuse.

The strategy simply repackages the administration existing budget priorities
and ignores key programs that provide the majority of the community
infrastructure and core support to local law enforcement, prevention and
treatment efforts to deal with meth where it has emerged as a crisis," said
Sue Thau, a consultant with the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America.

Ron Brooks, president of the National Narcotic Officers Associations
Coalition, said some government agencies " such as the Drug Enforcement
Administration " and even some parts of the drug czar's office have been
helpful.

"The disconnect appears to be the leadership at ONDCP," he said, referring
to the drug czar and his top aides at the Office of National Drug Control
Policy.

The report issued by the drug czar's office pledges to reduce
methamphetamine and recreational prescription drug use by 15 percent by 2009
and to increase seizures of meth labs in the United States by 25 percent.

But how can that be done, Souder asked, when the administration wants
to kill a program that provides grant money to police departments to
fight drugs?

"The strategy fails to explain how the state and local authorities can be
expected to keep up this pace of lab seizures if the administration succeeds
in gutting the very programs that make it possible," he said.

Souder also said it is "almost shocking" that the plan proposes to
"strengthen border protection" as a way to reduce the importation of meth or
meth ingredients but does not mention the federal department in charge of
border security, the Department of Homeland Security.

Souder also scolded the Bush administration for having tried to
scuttle legislation to put restrictions on the drugstore sales of cold
medicines, which contain an ingredient used to make meth, and the
importation of those ingredients.