AG DISPUTES REPORT ON METH

HELENA -- Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath is taking exception
to a report by The Sentencing Project, which said the prevalence of
methamphetamine use in the United States has been overstated. "I
think these people have their heads in the sand," McGrath said Thursday.

The Sentencing Project is a Washington, D.C.-based not-for-profit
group that supports alternatives to prison terms for convicted drug
users and other criminals.

The report, issued Wednesday, cited statistics compiled by the
government in 2004 that show 0.2 percent of people had used meth in
the past month, compared with 0.8 percent who said they had used
cocaine within the past month.

A separate survey of high school students showed a 36 percent drop in
meth use between 2001 and 2005, the group found.

Still, the report acknowledged that meth is more widely used today
than it was a decade ago. Data from jail populations from cities on
the West Coast show what Sentencing Project policy analyst Ryan King
called a "highly localized" problem.

"While meth use may not be the most serious drug problem in every
major city in the East, to the rest of the country -- particularly
the West -- it's overwhelming," McGrath said.

"Indeed, to say methamphetamine is not a significant problem -- then
cite data from Phoenix showing that more than one-third of the men
arrested there test positive for the drug is absurd," McGrath said in
a statement.

The report says nationally, 5 percent of men who had been arrested
had meth in their systems, compared with 30 percent who tested
positive for cocaine and 44 percent who tested positive for marijuana.

The Sentencing Project said news reports have inaccurately stated
that meth users do not respond as well to treatment as users of other
drugs. King said programs in 15 states have had promising results.

"Mischaracterizing the impact of methamphetamine by exaggerating its
prevalence and consequences while downplaying its receptivity to
treatment succeeds neither as a tool of prevention nor a vehicle of
education," he wrote.

In Montana, the Montana Meth Project runs graphic television, radio,
newspaper and billboard ads showing the effects of the drug on teens.
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard wants to have a similar
program in his state by August.

King called for a tempered approach to the problem, keeping the focus
on local trouble spots and using federal money to beef up treatment programs.

"Although I commend The Sentencing Project for recommending expansion
and funding of meth treatment programs, in my view, the report got it
wrong," McGrath said. "Meth is unlike other drugs, and this country
has a meth problem."

Montana is building meth treatment prisons in Lewistown and Boulder.