DEA CZAR HEARS PLEAS FOR HELP

Salina Police Chief Says Drug Problem Getting Unmanageable

The police chief of Salina, a city overrun by methamphetamine, publicly
pleaded for federal help Monday.

But President Bush's drug enforcement czar told Police Chief Jim Hill
during a Hutchinson town hall meeting to be thankful for the federal help
Hill and other Kansas law enforcement officials have.

Asa Hutchinson, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration,
received a loud and clear message Monday from the Kansas police at the
Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center.

The state's battle against methamphetamine is being lost, Hutchinson was told.

But none voiced that frustration more eloquently than Hill.

"Naively, I used to think four or five years ago that the battle against
drugs could be won with resources," said Hill, head of Salina's police
force the last 11 years. "Today, I'm just hoping to break even. But
instead, the problem is growing larger."

Hutchinson said he came to Kansas to meld two forces in the battle against
methamphetamine - law enforcement and treatment centers.

"It's important, I think, to merge those two services and make sure we're
on the same page," he said. "We have to work both those sides of this issue
to make sure we can achieve the greatest amount of success. But it's plain
from what I heard here today that there's going to be a funding issue with
the level of federal support."

Salina, the largest American city at the convergence of two interstates, is
emblematic of the state's struggle against methamphetamine.

It wages a losing battle on the backs of its taxpayers without federal aid,
Hill said.

"We're so overrun with taking down the meth labs that there's nothing we
can do about the Mexican meth that's being imported," he said. "We have
hundreds of reports from our drug intelligence that we cannot expand upon
unless we get direct corroboration."

The methamphetamine problem has mushroomed in Kansas in the past eight
years, from four labs in 1994 to 846 last year - 450 that were operational,
said Larry Welch, director of the Bureau of Investigation. Fifty-five of
those were in Reno County.

And with state money drying up, Welch admitted he was thankful for federal aid.

"In 1995, 14 percent of my budget was federal grants and fees," Welch told
Hutchinson. "Today, it's 40 percent. We're no longer state-supported. We're
state-assisted. Your presence here today tells us somebody believes us and
we're not exaggerating the methamphetamine problem in Kansas."

But in difficult federal budget times, it's going to be tough to "turn the
corner" in Kansas, Hutchinson said.

"I think the infrastructure is in place to do that," he said. "We have
better laws to deal with the precursor drugs. We have better education
programs in place.

"But we have two serious problems to address: the methamphetamine coming
from Mexico and channeled through places like California.

"We're making progress turning down a positive road. But long-term
consistency, from you and the federal government, is going to be the
critical element."

There was no argument from Reno County officials, who voiced some
disappointment with Hutchinson's message.

"I've got a prosecutor (Tom Stanton) who was up all night three nights last
week doing drug warrants," District Attorney Keith Schroeder said.

"Yet, it appears our money's going to be cut. I sure didn't hear any
cavalry bugles blowing out here today."