DEA OFFICIAL, CITING DROP IN AVAILABILITY AND USE OF NARCOTICS, SAYS DRUG
WAR MAKING AN IMPACT

GATLINBURG - The war on illegal drugs is making slow but steady
progress despite allegations by critics who charge that law
enforcement has proven ineffective in stemming drug use, the head of
the nation's anti-drug efforts said Tuesday.

Administrator Karen Tandy of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
said that aggressively pursuing the drug war has led to a reduction in
drug use and availability, but she complained that the media doesn't
report the issue fairly.

"Good news doesn't sell," Tandy said. "You won't read about it in
the press."

Tandy, who addressed an auditorium packed with police officers and
prosecutors as part of the annual Gatlinburg Law Enforcement
Conference, took the stage about two hours before Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales arrived.

Tandy said that LSD use among teenagers "is at the basement level"
because of strict enforcement of drug laws, that cocaine use has been
falling and that there has been a 61 percent drop in ecstasy use
during the past two years.

Tandy also said she was especially proud of the amount of money that
has been seized from drug offenders, although she conceded that "we've
barely hit the tip of the iceberg" in denting the $65-billion-a-year
illegal drug trade in the United States.

Tandy said that drug seizures are "on track this year to hit $1
billion" and predicted that amount will eventually climb to $3 billion
a year.

"And that's more money, by the way, that will be going back to you,"
she told the assembly of hundreds of law enforcement officers in a
reference to state and federal laws that allow funds seized during
drug busts to be returned to the agencies that confiscate them.

East Tennessee officials who attended the conference were especially
concerned by the amount of methamphetamine use in the area, and Tandy
said the good news is that meth is waning in popularity with teens.

Still, she said, more attention needs to be paid to the most
vulnerable victims of the meth problem - children who are exposed to
toxins during the clandestine manufacturing process.

"We have to work as hard to get these children channeled into a system
that gives them a chance," Tandy said, "You are their chance at life."

She also said that agencies have been instructed to pool their
resources and channel the worst meth offenders into federal court,
where they face longer prison sentences if convicted.

Russ Dedrick, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District
of Tennessee, discussed the activities of the South/East Tennessee
Methamphetamine Task Force.

The task force coordinates the efforts of dozens of agencies to combat
meth throughout East Tennessee, Dedrick explained, and has led to the
conviction of 500 people on meth charges in federal court and "three
times that many in state courts."

Tennessee leads the southeast U.S. in the number of clandestine meth
labs discovered by authorities, Dedrick said. In 2004, for instance,
authorities busted 1,355 meth labs in the state compared to only 321
seized in North Carolina, according to figures provided by Dedrick.

Dedrick stressed the important of interagency cooperation and
educating the public about the dangers of meth. "We've got to be
responsible in our enforcement efforts," he said.