BOSWELL DISCUSSES METH IN VINTON

Congressman Leonard Boswell visited Vinton on Thursday to discuss changes
in state and federal laws designed to reduce the meth problem in rural states.

Accompanied by Curt Smith of the Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy,
Boswell spoke with six people at Vinton City Hall. Last year, Boswell said,
Iowa was second in the nation in the number of meth labs found by law
enforcement officers.

But since the new law limiting the sale of pseuduoephedrine went into
effect, Boswell said, the number of meth labs found in Iowa compared to the
same months last year was down 75 percent.

Boswell has been visiting local communities to hear feedback about the new
law, and to increase support for a national law that would implement Iowa's
tough regulations throughout the nation.

A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate would have weakened Iowa's law,
Boswell said, adding that that bill is dead -- for now.

Boswell is a co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Caucus to Fight
and Control Methamphetamine. That group, he said, has grown from four
members of Congress to 180 members in the past few months.

In addition to regulating the sale of the pseudoephedrine pills that are
used to make meth, the bill Boswell supports would also authorize funding
for drug treatment programs.

Drug enforcement officer Mark Phippen of the Benton County Sheriff's Office
told Boswell that he strongly supports the meth law. Phippen said the
county's meth cases have decreased since January.

But, Phippen said, more needs to be done to combat the state's drug problem.

Phippen, a member of the multi-county R.A.I.D. Task Force, said one suspect
in Buchanan County was making meth in a home where children were present,
and also had a firearm.

That man, he said, had a "mandatory sentence" of 25 years, but ended up
spending just four years in jail.

"Sometimes you feel like you are banging your head against the wall," he
told Boswell.

"We need to lock some people up," Phippen said. "There's your treatment.
Someone who spends 12 months in the county jail will do better than someone
in a drug treatment program."

Curt Smith said that in his position in the Governor's Drug Control office,
he has also observed the way that incarceration has often led to recovery
from drug addiction.

Lt. Bruce Smith of the Vinton Police Department pointed out that when
Boswell came to Vinton for a meeting about Social Security, dozens of
people filled the city council chambers. But for the meeting on the meth
problem, only six showed up.

"Most people would say it's not an issue," Smith told the Congressman.

"We need to use every avenue we can to tell them that it is a problem,"
Boswell replied.

Curt Smith also praised Boswell for helping to protect funding for drug
treatment programs in Washington, D.C.

"It would be a shame to pass the meth law like we did but then strip away
the programs that help keep kids from starting to use meth," he said.

Curt Smith also discussed changes in the making of pseudoephedrine and
anhydrous ammonia that would strip those two ingredients of meth of their
power to make people high when cooked into meth.

Also, said Curt Smith, the reduction in the number of meth labs in Iowa has
allowed drug enforcement officers to spend more time on the interdiction of
drugs brought into Iowa.

Before the new meth law, he said, Iowa law enforcement officers were
"spending 80 percent of our time on 20 percent of the problem."

He said that although many more drugs are brought into Iowa than are
manufactured in the state, the manufacture poses a variety of health and
environmental risks that require more manpower.