Drug czar gets earful on meth problems (Washington DC)

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1140143103307050.xml&coll=7

Policy - Lawmakers say that the nation is playing catch-up and that policies are misdirected
Friday, February 17, 2006
JIM BARNETT
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has squandered its chance to prevent a national epidemic of methamphetamine abuse and has undercut local efforts to fight meth-related crime, members of a congressional panel told Bush's drug czar Thursday.

"Instead of catching it at the beginning, we're now paying the price, an ongoing price, as a government and as a people," Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., told John Walters, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

McHenry and other members of the government reform subcommittee on justice and drug policy sparred with Walters over priorities in Bush's proposed $12.7 billion drug-control budget for 2007, which was unveiled last week.

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Although the proposal represents a 1 percent increase over 2006, some programs popular with Congress were recommended for cuts. Among them are federal assistance for local law enforcement agencies and funding for abuse-prevention programs in schools.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., chided Walters for cutting or neglecting assistance to local officials while also failing to develop a clear national strategy for dealing with the spread of meth, a highly addictive and damaging drug.

"You can't have it both ways," Souder said.

In the Senate, meanwhile, a procedural vote on Thursday cleared the way for passage of a bill that combines an array of controls on distribution and sales of pseudoephedrine, the essential ingredient in meth that is commonly found in decongestants.

Among other things, the bill would require retailers to keep regulated cold products behind the counter and enforce sales limits to individuals. It also would give the federal government power to track international shipments of bulk pseudoephedrine.

The procedural vote Thursday ended an impasse over an update of the USA Patriot Act, to which the meth bill had been included late last year. Supporters in both chambers predicted the bill would be delivered to Bush early next month.

Back in the House, Walters spent much of the afternoon defending Bush's budget proposal as well as his own performance as drug czar.