WHITE FLAGS IN DRUG WAR

If the Bush Administration retreats federally in the battle against
methamphetamine, it will have handed drug dealers a victory that will
prove far more costly in the years ahead than the budget savings that
might be realized today.

Unlike the debates that surrounded decriminalization and the federal
role of law enforcement in policing marijuana 40 years ago, we already
know -- or, rather, law enforcement knows -- that meth and its effects
pose a huge threat to the nation.

Yet, despite this, the president proposes slashing a Justice
Department methamphetamine initiative by some 60 percent, in addition
to steep cuts in grant programs for anti-drug efforts to state and
local governments.

Granted, the administration's $12.4 billion proposed spending for the
drug war in fiscal 2006 represents a 2.2 percent increase over current
funding. But it is being directed more and more at the "supply"
problem of global interception and crop eradication. State and local
law enforcement, by contrast, more often find themselves combating the
"demand" consequences of the drug problem.

This is no time for the Bush Administration to be reducing support to
those officers. It is time for our legislators in Washington to "Just
say no" to Bush's proposed local spending reductions.