METH'S MARCH CHALLENGES DRUG WAR

WASHINGTON -- Terry Fernandez says he's seen too many children
sleeping beside toxic chemicals in busted neighborhood meth labs.

In Florida, where known methamphetamine labs grew more than 10-fold
from 1999 to 2004, that toll and others are rising as states scramble
to control a homemade drug that is hitting eastern states hard and
fast.

"It's a dirty drug," said Fernandez, director of the Central Florida
High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a seven-county multiagency
alliance with federal funding. "Once they're into it, they're into it
forever."

The methamphetamine debate was reinforced last week by a report of the
National Association of Counties that said nearly 60 percent of
counties consider this to be their biggest drug problem. Meth is a
highly addictive stimulant that has effects similar to cocaine but
lasts longer and is cheaper.

The Bush administration is trying to cut several programs that state
officials say are key to fighting meth. That includes an attempt to
slash and redefine the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program.

Critics say the White House remains focused on the traditional targets
of marijuana and to a lesser extent cocaine while attempting to
reorient federal dollars limited by the war on terrorism toward
high-level drug rings.

Congress is resisting, and appears inclined to restore many of Bush's
cuts out of concern for local agencies combating a drug made by
small-time "cooks" virtually anywhere.

In the absence of federal action, at least 42 states have passed or
are considering laws to regulate cold medicines that include the key
ingredients ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, which allow meth to be made
in homes, motel rooms and rural hamlets once known for bootlegging
liquor. The ingredients are highly toxic and flammable, often
resulting in serious explosions.

Congress is wrestling with legislation, but it is unclear how quick,
strong or comprehensive that effort will be.

"National leadership does need to pay more heed to it," said James
McDonough, director of the Florida Office of Drug Control.

COMMON COLD

The Florida Legislature this year put some cold medicines behind the
counter as of July 1. That law, however, is not considered among the
strongest.

In Florida, Sudafed, Actafed and generic equivalents that contain
pseudoephedrine as their sole active ingredient are behind the counter
and can only be purchased three packs at a time, but in unlimited
visits. Stricter laws in states such as Oklahoma regulate more
medications and limit monthly sales.

"In the political world, you deal with the art of the possible,"
McDonough said, "so we came up with what we thought was a pragmatic
law with the backing of all players."

Experts say the patchwork that states are creating allows for
loopholes.

Congress is considering a slew of bills in the House and Senate that
would regulate cold medicines nationwide, enhance programs for
children exposed to the chemical process and address other effects.

House members say some measures could reach the floor as early as this
month.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jim Talent, R-Mo., for example,
are pushing legislation that would limit purchases of cold medicine
containing pseudoephedrine per person each month. Logs would be kept
and identification checked. Retailers have successfully fought such
measures in many states.

RUNGS OF THE LADDER

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, there were 7,438
meth labs busted in 1999 nationwide but 17,033 last year. Busts in
California dropped from 2,579 to 753 in that time, but they have
surged elsewhere.

Florida saw 23 meth-lab busts in 1999 and 277 last year, according to
federal statistics.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy stresses the
need to control ingredients for meth, and it agrees the drug poses new
problems.

But the administration proposed eliminating a $805 million grant
program in the Department of Justice, cutting the Safe and Drug Free
Schools Program in the Department of Education by 53 percent, making a
60 percent cut for grants to address meth hot spots and slashing by
more than half the multi-county and multi-agency grants under the High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program, or HIDTA, from $228 million
to $100 million.

Critics say those programs are important in the fight against meth and
other drugs.

Marc Wheat, a top aide to Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., chairman of the
Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources,
said Congress has been forced to protect existing programs instead of
"trying to advance the ball on fixing some things we think are
problematic."

Moreover, the administration proposed moving HIDTA out of the Office
of National Drug Control Policy into the Justice Department. Observers
say the move is an effort to gain control over an office that was
created by executive order yet has the distinction of containing
programs created and controlled by Congress, including the HITDA
program, which is the office's largest.

The White House says anti-drug spending throughout the federal
government rise 2 percent under the president's budget proposal, and
it is working to block international sources of the methamphetamine
that account for an estimated 80 percent of U.S. consumption.

Administration officials say programs are targeted for big cuts or
elimination because they haven't proven effective and the budget is
tight. The justice grants, drug free schools program and HIDTA have
become mostly "revenue sharing" projects with states, said a spokesman
for the drug policy office.

"I do not think we have neglected or diminished any one of those rungs
of the ladder," said David Murray, an administration policy analyst
for the drug policy office.

The House has restored many of the proposed cuts in 2006 spending
bills and refused to move the HIDTA program, but the Senate has not
settled these questions.

This debate reveals a struggle over direction of the drug war just as
Congress is debating reauthorization of the Office of National Drug
Control Policy, a process that sets direction and goals for coming
years.

For example, the drug policy office complains it has been unable to
focus HIDTA on organized crime and drug rings, explaining its plan to
move the program to a unit in the Justice Department dealing with
those organizations.

OUTDATED VISION?

Some critics say the administration would sacrifice funding for local
law enforcement -- which they call especially critical with rising
meth use -- to break up high-level rings while saving for the war on
terrorism.

"That seems to be the goal," said Abbey Levenshus, spokeswoman for
Rep. Rick Larsen, a Washington Democrat who is co-chairman of the
Congressional Meth Caucus. "It's been a struggle. People are afraid of
terrorists, but right now they're more afraid of the meth house that's
down the street."

Some local officials and lawmakers say the White House is clinging to
an outdated view of the drug problem. Joe Dunn, a lobbyist with the
National Association of Counties, said the administration is missing a
crisis.

"Their main focus has been on marijuana," he said, "and from what our
people are telling us, it's methamphetamine that is the problem."