STATES' OFFICIALS TO DISCUSS GROWING METH PROBLEM

SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- About 200 state and federal officials are expected
today for a three-day Midwest summit designed to find ways to eliminate the
scourge of highly addictive methamphetamine.

Strategies for law enforcement, meth lab cleanup, education about the drug,
treatment of addicts and protection of their children will be discussed by
Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns and officials from 12 other states in the
Midwest 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
downside includes 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, who has helped battle
methamphetamine in Washington state.

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

Asa Hutchinson, director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, is
scheduled to give the keynote address at the conference, which is sponsored
by the governors' conference, 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 the 1990s as
methamphetamine use has expanded from the West and Southwest into the
Midwest and the East.

In 1997, then-federal drug czar Barry McAffery held a national summit on
methamphetamine in Omaha and committed an extra $10million to the battle
against the powerful stimulant.

It is a difficult drug to stop because it is so addictive, inexpensive and
easy to obtain. In 1996, one methamphetamine lab was found in Nebraska. So
far this year, police have found more than 170 labs 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 meeting will be its first regional effort, Copple
said.

Small and large group meetings are planned throughout the conference to
identify challenges and chart strategy for the 13-state region, composed of
Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota,
Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.