DRUG OFFICIAL DEFENDS RESPONSE TO METH CRISIS

A top federal drug official defended the Bush administration Wednesday
against a growing chorus of charges that the White House has failed to
respond to the methamphetamine crisis facing communities nationwide.

On a visit to Vancouver, John Horton, assistant deputy for state and local
affairs for the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, said the
administration has made significant progress in eliminating meth
"superlabs" on U.S. soil and in reducing meth use among young people age 12
to 18.

"President Bush has requested more money for drug treatment than any other
president," said Horton, a former Multnomah County prosecutor who went to
work for the administration in 2002.

For next year, Horton said, the administration is seeking $2.7 billion for
federal grants that state and local governments could use to fund law
enforcement, treatment and prevention programs to combat meth or other
illegal drugs.

That total includes $1.7 billion for substance-abuse block grants and
smaller amounts to support drug courts, interagency drug enforcement
programs and interdiction at the Mexican border. However, a breakdown
provided by Horton's office Wednesday identified only $20 million
specifically earmarked for methamphetamine enforcement and cleanup.

Last week, an Indiana congressman who chairs the committee that oversees
drug policy called for the resignation of a top aide to White House drug
czar John Walters after the aide briefed lawmakers on the administration's
anti-meth efforts. Republican Rep. Mark Souder called the presentation
"pathetic" and "an embarrassment."

U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., who helped found the Congressional Meth
Caucus, said federal drug officials seemed out of touch with the magnitude
of the problems local police and social service agencies face as they try
to combat meth on the front line.

Horton spoke at the statewide conference of the Washington Association of
County Officials, held at the Vancouver Convention Center. The subject of
meth dominated Wednesday's agenda. Attorney General Rob McKenna, who has
launched his own anti-meth task force, and U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert,
R-Wash., also addressed the topic, and three members of a family that has
lived with meth addiction told their story.

The issue also came up in a briefing by state legislators Wednesday. Sen.
Mark Doumit, D-Cathlamet, said Wahkiakum County will lose 30 percent of the
federal grant that funds its meth task force next year.

And though the 2005 Legislature gave local governments new taxing authority
to raise money for fighting meth, voters in Cowlitz County narrowly
defeated a proposed special levy for that purpose in the primary election,
Doumit said.

"I don't think we can count on enhanced revenue" to fight meth, he said.

Horton didn't disagree. He stressed that the federal government cannot foot
the entire bill for fighting meth, especially as it faces new obligations
to pay for restoration of the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of hurricanes
Katrina and Rita.

He told county officials the administration is not interested in fighting a
defensive war against meth. "We cannot arrest our way out of this problem,"
he said.

Instead, he said, the federal government is mounting an offense by working
to reduce demand for the potent stimulant, especially among young people,
and by trying to reduce the supply of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, key
ingredients in the manufacture of meth, exported to the United States and
Mexico by major producers, including China, India, Germany and Czech Republic.

Horton declined to say whether President Bush would back the sweeping
Methamphetamine Epidemic Elimination Act introduced in the U.S. House last
month with bipartisan support.

"Congress should send the president a bill," he said.

Baird, a co-founder of the caucus and a national leader in the meth fight,
helped draft the legislation, which drew 32 co-sponsors.

The act would limit the amount of pseudoephedrine or ephedrine a person
could purchase at one time to 3.6 grams and boost enforcement of
environmental laws against meth cooks who pollute the environment by
requiring them to pay restitution for cleanup costs on their own property.

On the international front, it would require importers of meth precursor
chemicals to disclose to federal regulators detailed information about the
chain of distribution of those chemicals, from the manufacturer to the
chemicals' arrival at the U.S. border, and authorize law enforcement
assistance to Mexico, the largest exporter of methamphetamine into the
United States.

Horton said that even without legislation, the administration has made some
progress in persuading China to better track its export of meth precursor
chemicals.