METH NOT ON PRESIDENTIAL RADAR

State-level candidates talk about the drug, but Bush, Kerry fail to
mention it in speeches. Columbia - Missouri Sen. Kit Bond, a
Republican whose state ranks No. 1 in busts of makeshift
methamphetamine labs, calls peddlers of the highly addictive drug
"domestic terrorists."

Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa says voters in Midwestern
presidential battlegrounds are more likely to encounter a meth maker
than an operative for al-Qaida.

But while the federal government spends millions to boost state and
local law enforcement efforts against the made-from-scratch stimulant
- - variously known as crank, meth or ice - methamphetamine has scarcely
been mentioned by the presidential candidates.

At the state level, however, candidates stress their commitment to
fighting meth.

Police are challenged daily by the audacity of the drug's makers and
their toxic trails of waste byproducts. Missouri shut down 2,860 meth
labs last year, more than any other state. Authorities say they are on
track to exceed that total this year.

As a political issue, the statistic cuts two ways: It's encouraging
that thousands of labs are being busted but frustrating that so many
keep popping up.

Meth hasn't been mentioned much in recent presidential campaign
speeches, despite the presumed advantage of localizing appeals to
audiences in Missouri, Iowa and other Midwestern electoral
battlegrounds.

President Bush's recent Missouri bus tour took him through half a
dozen mostly rural Missouri counties where more than 70 meth labs have
been busted this year.

White House transcripts reviewed by The Associated Press show Bush
never referred to meth during that Missouri tour.

Bond said he has "gotten right in the middle of the issue," including
securing more than $13 million in federal money for local cops to
fight meth. It pays off politically. More than 70 sheriffs, including
several Democrats, have endorsed Bond over Democratic challenger Nancy
Farmer.

Bond told the Associated Press he doesn't recall ever talking to Bush
about meth. But the senator said meth hasn't broken through as a
coast-to-coast issue, although it has been called an epidemic by
police in locales as diverse as southern California and the Ozarks.

"We do have a very specific Midwest problem," Bond said, "and perhaps
it's very difficult for a president or his opponent to make it a
national issue, although drug problems are a national problem."

Scott Burns, Bush's deputy drug czar, acknowledged as much during
congressional testimony last February. He said there was a "lack of
national uniformity" to the meth problem.

"Simply put, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center, in
some areas of this country, methamphetamine use and production is not
classified as a significant problem. Yet in other regions, it is a
significant threat," Burns said.

Burns said the Bush administration has spent millions on
federal-state-local teams battling meth in the Midwest, the Southwest
and California. He said the administration supports expanding federal
drug courts and working to "tighten regulatory controls" on meth
ingredients.

Democrat John Kerry's campaign by train carried him to multiple
rallies between St. Louis and Kansas City this summer - a stretch with
more than 350 meth lab raids in 2004.

Campaign spokesmen assert Kerry may have said something about meth at
some point in his Missouri travels, but they couldn't provide any
transcript or news report to back that up. Kerry did briefly refer to
Iowa's meth problems during a Washington speech last month.

Surrogates are talking about meth, however. Campaigning for the
Democratic ticket at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia, Iowa's
Vilsack quipped: "Rural residents of Missouri and Iowa are far more
likely to confront a meth dealer than a terrorist."

Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards called meth "this
poison" during an Aug. 16 campaign stop in Greene County, where more
than 40 labs have been taken down this year.

"The spread of this has just been deadly out in rural communities and
small towns," Edwards said, adding that meth is a growing problem in
his home state, North Carolina. "We have to have a commitment as a
nation to do something about it."

Edwards went on to criticize the Bush administration funding cuts for
law enforcement, such as community oriented policing. The
Kerry-Edwards campaign said more recently that Kerry supports federal
legislation based on an Oklahoma law making it harder to buy large
amounts of over-the-counter meth ingredients.

Bond said the reality of the meth battle is that local officers, not
federal officeholders, are on the front lines.

Sheriffs praised Bond's efforts in delivering money. But they would be
gratified if the presidential candidates talked about national strategies.

"I'd like to hear them talking about meth, but with action, not just
buzz words," says Montgomery County Sheriff Bob Davis, a Republican
who recalls the arrest of a whacked-out meth user who kissed a horse
before brandishing a knife at a deputy.

Says Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke, a Republican whose county
raided more than 65 meth labs this year: "I know the big national
issue is homeland security and justifiably so. But I hope in dealing
with that, they don't lose sight that meth is a growing problem."