BUSH'S DRUG POLICY UNDER ATTACK AS TOO SOFT ON METH

"Harm Reduction": Rep. Souder Says HHS Will Use This Weekend's
Conference in SLC to Promote a Light-Handed Fight Against Drugs

SLC Conference: An Indiana Lawmaker Says the Government Is Too
Light-Handed, Pointing at the Upcoming Utah Gathering As an Example

The Bush administration is expected later this week to unveil its plan to
contain America's methamphetamine epidemic, amid criticism that the
president has largely ignored it and favors drug abuse prevention over a
legal crackdown.

One target: a national meth conference being held Friday and Saturday in
Salt Lake City, which lists U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as
a sponsor.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Indiana, protests the agency's support because the
meeting's organizers promote a "harm reduction" approach to drug policy,
such as offering clean needles and syringes to drug users and teaching them
how to avoid overdoses.

Souder, chairman of a House subcommittee on drug policy, says such programs
are a front for a movement to legalize drugs.

He fears the endorsement, coupled with reports that staff for Health and
Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt has been consulting with conference
organizers, undermines law enforcement.

"I am enormously frustrated with your department for dithering on the meth
issue while the rest of America fights an epidemic that is viciously
tearing apart families and communities," Souder wrote to Leavitt on Friday.
"Any claim that your department is unaware of the pro-legalization agenda
and 'soft' approach to illegal narcotics of the harm reduction advocates is
utterly implausible."

Leavitt, in Utah talking to seniors about Medicare reform, declined to
address Souder's remarks, saying he hadn't read the letter. He offered only
hints about the upcoming meth initiative, saying the federal government
supports efforts to crack down on interstate and cross-border meth trafficking.

The Bush administration's Tuesday advisory said Leavitt, the U.S. Attorney
General and White House drug czar will unveil the plan later this week.

In addition to working on the supply side of the equation, "we've got to
work on the demand side, too," said Leavitt. Citing methamphetamine's costs
to society, from bulging prisons to children abandoned to foster care by
drug-addicted parents, Leavitt said: "We need to convince people that meth
will wreck their lives and rot their brains. Law enforcement is a big part
of it. Another part is prevention and education."

Luciano Colonna, head of the Harm Reduction Project in Salt Lake City and
the conference's organizer, says HHS was listed as a primary sponsor
because it gave $3,000 in travel scholarships to participants.

Other government sponsors include the Utah Department of Health, the Utah
State Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health and the California
Department of Health Services.

Outraged by what he called the "arrogance and nastiness" of Souder's
letter, Colonna said the conference aims to promote collaboration among
police agencies, researchers and substance abuse counselors - not to hold
up harm reduction as a cure-all.

To back his claim of an emphasis on harm reduction, Souder cited such
conference lecture titles as "We Don't Need a 'War' on Methamphetamine" and
"You Don't Have to Be Clean & Sober. Or Even Want to Be!"

Among the speakers is Ethan Nadelmann, executive of the Drug Policy Alliance.

Souder notes the alliance is funded by billionaire George Soros, an
advocate for legalizing marijuana.

Colonna says those titles are taken from the conference program out of
context and omit involvement by law enforcement officials and prosecutors.

To make snap judgments about the lectures, delivered by academicians, "is
to do a disservice to the 900 people who signed up to attend," said Colonna.

[sidebar]

ABOUT METHAMPHETAMINE

Once a drug confined to Western mountain states, crystal meth is making
inroads east and popping up in major metropolitan areas, such as Chicago
and Philadelphia.

The conference: The Friday and Saturday conference in Salt Lake City at the
downtown Hilton hotel is being promoted as the first to explore links
between injection of crystal methamphetamine and the spread of HIV and
hepatitis.

For more information, go to: www.harmredux.org