CANTWELL STUMPS FOR METH FIGHT

Hours after the Senate passed her budget amendment adding $20 million
to the national effort to fight methamphetamine, Sen. Maria Cantwell
was in Hazel Dell talking up the potential victory.

It's not a victory yet, the Democratic lawmaker told law enforcement
officials and firefighters, because the House of Representatives has
yet to reconcile its own budget plans with the Senate's and because
the White House only requested $20 million total. The initial Senate
target was $60.1 million.

The Senate's approval Thursday night of Cantwell's budget amendment,
bringing the total to $80 million to fight meth, is an all-time high,
Cantwell said.

"We want to give law enforcement all the tools they need to fight this
problem," she said.

The money would be earmarked for a meth "hot spots" account that's
available to local law enforcement. The funds go directly to state and
local law enforcement programs to combat meth trafficking and
production, and to clean up hazardous sites.

Cantwell noted that Washington state has already made progress in the
effort, dropping from the state with the second most meth labs to the
fifth. But meth-related deaths rose by 10 percent in Washington at the
same time, she noted.

A pressing problem, she said, is the state-by-state regulations that
tend to push the problem from one place to another. Oregon now
requires a prescription to get pseudoephedrine, the cold-medicine
ingredient that serves as a base for methamphetamine, but Washington
doesn't yet.

"We know people are coming over here to get it," said Toni Eby, who
coordinates the Clark County Meth Action Team for the sheriff's
office. "They're one step ahead, and so the problem moves up here."

Eby said law enforcement is pressing for tough, coast-to-coast
pseudoephedrine regulation chiefly that it would require a
prescription to buy in any state. The pharmaceutical lobby, she said,
is pressing right back.

Cantwell said $80 million in funds to fight meth nationwide still
isn't enough, and that the White House has attempted to cut some meth
funding in past budgets.

"I'm not sure they understand how pervasive it is," she said.

Cantwell was at Fire District No. 6, Station 1, on Hazel Dell Avenue
to talk about the budget amendment. She examined a hazardous materials
truck and the equipment it contains. That's everything from chemical
hazard detectors and oxygen gear to portable showers for the meth
cooks and, often, children and other innocent bystanders who need to
be hosed down after they've been contaminated by the drug.

Todd and Anita Apple of Puyallup were on hand to thank the senator and
describe their own struggle with meth addiction. They said they cooked
the drug for years, and multiple arrests, bad burns and even an
emergency helicopter trip to the burn center at Harborview Medical
Center in Seattle didn't quench their addiction. They finally quit
together, Todd Apple said, after he realized that nobody really wanted
him, "except bounty hunters and the police."

"I accepted the fact that I was going to die of it," said Apple, who
now works with the state on a program called Meth Lab 101 teaching
firefighters and paramedics how to identify meth labs. He also talks
about his experience in schools.

"When I talk to kids about it, I make some promises," Apple said. The
first two meth promises on his list: You will become addicted to it,
and you will become its slave.

Update

Previously: Last year the methamphetamine "hot spots" account, a federal
fund aimed at bolstering law enforcement and education, received $52
million.

What's new: The Senate on Friday approved a budget amendment sponsored
by Sen. Maria Cantwell that boosts funding of the fight against
methamphetamine to $80 million.

What's next: In the coming weeks, Senate and House negotiators will
get together to agree on a fiscal 2006 budget, including the meth "hot
spots" fund.