DEA DIRECTOR VISITS ON ANTI-METH TOUR

FORT WORTH - Drug Enforcement Administration Director Asa Hutchinson
brought his national "Meth in America: Not in Our Town" tour here Thursday,
warning of the health and environmental risks of the widely used drug that
costs as little as $5 per hit.

Flanked by prosecutors and law enforcement officials, Hutchinson called
methamphetamine "one of the most destructive drugs in our society today."

At a news conference at the Radisson Plaza Hotel, he vowed to make it
tougher for methamphetamine cooks and traffickers to obtain large
quantities of the chemicals needed to produce batches of the drug that's
also known as "the poor man's cocaine."

Meth recipes are readily available over the Internet, and ingredients such
as pseudoephedrine and anhydrous ammonia can easily be bought in
supermarkets and feed stores.

"It's the No. 1 drug problem in rural America," Hutchinson said.

Last year, Texas state and local law enforcement agencies, in cooperation
with federal drug agents, seized 575 labs. In 2000, they seized 425 labs.

The average lab cleanup costs $3,300 and poses substantial health risks to
law enforcement officers, Hutchinson said.

The DEA has trained more than 400 Texas officers in dismantling meth labs
and provided more than $3 million for cleanup in Texas.

The increasing meth lab busts come as overall drug use has decreased 50
percent in the past 20 years, with cocaine use down 75 percent in the past
15 years, Hutchinson said, citing the independent PRIDE surveys on drug usage.

To curb the still widespread drug use, Hutchinson called on employers to
deter drug use by random drug testing. "Seventy-five percent of drug users
are employed," he said.