DEA: METH FIGHT HAS INTERNATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- The battle against methamphetamine has international
ramifications, the director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
said Wednesday.

At a 13-state summit on efforts to fight the highly addictive drug, Asa
Hutchinson said it has been discovered that international drug gangs supply
many of the materials used to make methamphetamine.

Proceeds from some of those sales have found their way to the Middle East
and into the hands of terrorist organizations, he said.

At the same time, the war against terrorism has helped in the battle
against drugs because security is much tighter at airports and U.S.
borders, Hutchinson told about 200 state and federal officials attending
the three-day summit sponsored by the Midwest Governor's Conference.

"Meth is a national priority because it is the greatest drug problem that
faces rural America," Hutchinson said. "And we have not yet rolled back the
tide on this problem."

Strategies for law enforcement, meth lab cleanup, education about the drug,
treatment of addicts and protection of their children were being discussed
at the summit by Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns and officials from 12 other
states, including Michigan and Indiana, in the governors' conference.

Often called the "poor man's cocaine," methamphetamine can be made in
bathtubs, on kitchen stoves and in car trunks from commercially available
chemicals. It normally contains ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, found in
over-the-counter cold medications.

People smoking, snorting, swallowing or injecting the drug experience
intense euphoria and can go days without sleep, but methamphetamine's
downsides include irritability, paranoia, aggression and violence.

"People who have been using the drug for a long time have really lost their
ability to focus at all," said Priscilla Lisicich, a speaker at the
conference who has helped battle methamphetamine in Washington state.

Addicts also suffer from deteriorating health, and they are prone to
neglect or abuse their children and commit other violent crime, Lisicich said.

Hutchinson gave the keynote address at the summit, which also was sponsored
by the National Crime Prevention Council and the community policing section
of the U.S. Justice Department.

Similar conferences have been held across the Midwest since at least the
mid-1990s as methamphetamine use expanded from the West and Southwest into
the Midwest and the East.

It is a difficult drug to stop because it is so addictive, inexpensive and
easy to obtain.

In 1996, one methamphetamine lab was seized in Nebraska. So far this year,
more than 170 meth labs have been found in the state.

Getting law enforcement, drug treatment, child protection and environmental
officials together is important because they can coordinate activities and
share the most effective approaches to battling methamphetamine, said Jim
Copple of the National Crime Prevention Council.

The council has held statewide meetings across the country since August
2001, and the Sioux City, Iowa, meeting will be its first regional effort.

Small and large group meetings were planned throughout the conference to
identify challenges and chart strategy for participating states, also
including Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, North
Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Lisicich, executive director of the Safe Streets substance abuse and
violence campaign in Washington's Pierce County south of Seattle, was
scheduled to talk Thursday about her state's initiatives.

Efforts there include stepped up law enforcement, limits on the amount of
pseudoephedrine that can be purchased over the counter and court programs
geared toward addiction treatment and protection of children, Lisicich said.