AG Gonzales: We're Winning War Against Meth
GONZALES: WE'RE WINNING WAR AGAINST METH
Kennebeck Maine
PORTLAND -- Despite some grim statistics, authorities are winning the war against methamphetamine abuse, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told a national gathering of public prosecutors in Portland on Monday.
Gonzales, the nation's top law-enforcement official, appeared at the National District Attorneys Association summer convention to talk about the toll methamphetamine abuse has taken and what is working to combat its spread.
In Washington, Gonzales has been mentioned as a leading candidate to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court. In Portland, Gonzales stuck to his methamphetamine message, took no questions and said nothing about the high court in his address to more than 550 district attorneys, their spouses and children.
To wipe out meth abuse, Gonzales said, local, state and federal law-enforcement officials as well as private citizens must work together.
"We must get the neighbors involved," he said.
Gonzales said 58 percent of counties nationwide rank methamphetamine abuse as their biggest problem. Last year 1.3 million people used meth, he said, four times the number of people who used heroin.
Methamphetamine is a highly addictive stimulant. It can be manufactured at home by cooking over-the-counter cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine and related substances with liquid fertilizer and starter fluid. It is smoked, snorted or injected. It is considered the cheap alternative to cocaine, in part because the euphoria lasts longer.
The illegal drug is taking a toll nationwide, causing misery for the addicts, who often suffer psychosis and other side effects, and pain for their families. Police uncover about 45 small meth labs each day. Since 2001, more than 50,000 meth labs have been shut down, 30 percent in homes where children live. Gonzales said 15,000 children have had their lives disrupted by meth-addicted parents in the past five years.
Gonzales told the prosecutors that the meth problem requires unconventional solutions, some of which are already bringing results.
Much of the meth is manufactured outside the United States. Gonzales said Mexico makes 60 percent of the meth used in the United States.
He said China, which has supplied many of the pseudoephedrine products to Mexico, recently agreed to share information with the United States and will no longer send the products to Mexico unless Mexico can certify that the recipients are legitimate. -------------------------------
If anyone believes this garbage please get your head examined ASAP.
This is another excuse to turn Americans into snitches for the government.
People wouldn't be cooking this shit in their houses or in the trunks of their cars if they could get a legal prescription (Desoxyn) for their addiction.
There would not be a meth problem if the government would just leave pot smokers alone.
I contend that the rise in meth use came about in large part as a result of random school and workplace drug testing. Making drugs illegal does not remove the part of human nature that makes us want to alter our state of consciousness. It simply pushes some people to harder drugs that are out of their system in three days making it easier to pass a drug test.
Kennebeck Maine
PORTLAND -- Despite some grim statistics, authorities are winning the war against methamphetamine abuse, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told a national gathering of public prosecutors in Portland on Monday.
Gonzales, the nation's top law-enforcement official, appeared at the National District Attorneys Association summer convention to talk about the toll methamphetamine abuse has taken and what is working to combat its spread.
In Washington, Gonzales has been mentioned as a leading candidate to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court. In Portland, Gonzales stuck to his methamphetamine message, took no questions and said nothing about the high court in his address to more than 550 district attorneys, their spouses and children.
To wipe out meth abuse, Gonzales said, local, state and federal law-enforcement officials as well as private citizens must work together.
"We must get the neighbors involved," he said.
Gonzales said 58 percent of counties nationwide rank methamphetamine abuse as their biggest problem. Last year 1.3 million people used meth, he said, four times the number of people who used heroin.
Methamphetamine is a highly addictive stimulant. It can be manufactured at home by cooking over-the-counter cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine and related substances with liquid fertilizer and starter fluid. It is smoked, snorted or injected. It is considered the cheap alternative to cocaine, in part because the euphoria lasts longer.
The illegal drug is taking a toll nationwide, causing misery for the addicts, who often suffer psychosis and other side effects, and pain for their families. Police uncover about 45 small meth labs each day. Since 2001, more than 50,000 meth labs have been shut down, 30 percent in homes where children live. Gonzales said 15,000 children have had their lives disrupted by meth-addicted parents in the past five years.
Gonzales told the prosecutors that the meth problem requires unconventional solutions, some of which are already bringing results.
Much of the meth is manufactured outside the United States. Gonzales said Mexico makes 60 percent of the meth used in the United States.
He said China, which has supplied many of the pseudoephedrine products to Mexico, recently agreed to share information with the United States and will no longer send the products to Mexico unless Mexico can certify that the recipients are legitimate. -------------------------------
If anyone believes this garbage please get your head examined ASAP.
This is another excuse to turn Americans into snitches for the government.
People wouldn't be cooking this shit in their houses or in the trunks of their cars if they could get a legal prescription (Desoxyn) for their addiction.
There would not be a meth problem if the government would just leave pot smokers alone.
I contend that the rise in meth use came about in large part as a result of random school and workplace drug testing. Making drugs illegal does not remove the part of human nature that makes us want to alter our state of consciousness. It simply pushes some people to harder drugs that are out of their system in three days making it easier to pass a drug test.
posted by Loretta Nall at
7:38 AM
1 Comments:
Loretta's theory about one cause of the rise of meth use is probably right, but I might add that the very high cost of marijuana is also a contributing factor. When I was a young person, good pot was about $35 an ounce. Now, after 20 years of the drug war, it is almost 10 times that much. The high price of pot is a stated objective of our National Drug Control Policy. Their theory is that high prices reduce drug use. Their theory fails to consider human nature. If pot is unaffordable, then people who want to use drugs will look around for cheaper, more available alternatives. No wonder some people are cooking their own drugs from cheap, ordinary household products.
I remember seeing a recipe for homemade meth almost 30 years ago, so the homemade meth thing is nothing new. It's just that back then the drug war had not offically started, we had no "Office of National Drug Control Policy" and folks were smoking relatively harmless pot. Ingesting some toxic chemical stew cooked up at home was not something most pot users would have even considered.
So today we have the homemade meth problem, and the over the counter cough syrup problem. (dextromethorphan). If the idiots keep this up, the next war will be on household solvents and nitrous oxide propelled whipped cream cans.
In the article, Gonzalez mis-stated the true accomplishments of the war on drugs. Our National Drug Control Policy has in fact created the meth problem. So they claim they are winning the war against the problem they helped to create?
Shame! Shame! Shame!!
Zen
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Anonymous, at 2:42 AM
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