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 News from Around the Americas | September 2007 
Meth Imports Soar as Labs Making Drug Wane in U.S.
 Jane Norman - Des Moines Register
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 |  | As meth production has decreased in the United States, meth production in Mexico has increased to pick up the slack. |  | |
Washington, D.C. - Despite the enactment of a federal law limiting the sales of ingredients for methamphetamine, the illegal and highly addictive drug remains more available than ever via imports by Mexican drug trafficking rings, law enforcement officials say.
In Midwestern states such as Iowa, "Mexican criminal groups have gained control over most distribution of the drug," a report by the Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center says.
Those conclusions in recent national reports and congressional staff research will be the focus of a hearing Tuesday in the Senate Finance Committee. Two senators plan to keep the pressure on Bush administration officials, Congress and states to fight the spread of meth.
Both Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Ia., are from largely rural states plagued by use of meth, a drug that is still somewhat of a novelty on the East Coast.
"This hearing is a way to keep beating the drum about the methamphetamine problem," Grassley said. "No one should be lulled into a false sense of complacency because of successes in combating meth."
Tuesday's hearing will focus on how to battle the increasing problem of meth flowing in over the southern border, now that homegrown labs are largely on the wane.
The Combat Meth Act, signed into law in 2006 and modeled on an Iowa law, imposes federal standards on the purchase of cold medicine that includes key ingredients for meth, such as pseudoephedrine.
There is a limit on how much medicine can be bought, and purchasers are required to sign a sales log.
The medicines also must be kept behind the counter or in a locked case.
As a result of the new federal law as well as state initiatives, meth lab seizures are declining nationwide, a committee staff report says. The Drug Enforcement Administration reported more than 17,000 meth lab incident seizures in 2004, compared with 7,300 in 2006.
But as meth production has decreased in the United States, meth production in Mexico has increased to pick up the slack. Mexican criminal groups have relocated U.S. "super labs" to Mexico or remote areas of California, the report says. These labs can produce 10 pounds of meth at a time.
A Justice Department assessment says these distribution groups are often more difficult for local law enforcement officials to dismantle because they are typically much more organized and experienced. The drug they produce is more potent and results in a more rapid addiction.
Earlier this month, U.S. Attorney Matt Whitaker announced the indictments of 22 men and women, most from Mexico and 17 of them illegally in the country, in a massive drug ring that operated in Polk County during the last two years.
A bust netted more than 20 pounds of meth.
Yet some domestic labs remain and are creeping into new areas. Two elaborate meth laboratories operating in suburban apartment buildings just outside Washington, D.C., were recently busted.
Some 80 percent of the drug is now smuggled in from Mexico, the congressional report says. Border drug violence also remains a concern, and Mexican drug trafficking rings are taking over direct distribution of meth in U.S. communities rather than relying on local dealers.
An August survey by the National Association of Counties found that meth is the No. 1 drug problem among 47 percent of county sheriffs surveyed.
The profile of users is changing as well. Sixty percent of sheriffs reported more meth use by women, and 49 percent reported more use by teenagers during the last three years.
Grassley and other Finance Committee members are pushing legislation that would open new fronts in the fight against meth.
Baucus has a bill that would address the oral health problems associated with meth use, while Grassley and others have legislation intended to assist children in homes where meth production is found and expand requirements for log books used to record meth sales.
Beyond that, aides said the hearing is designed to explore how effective the new federal law has been, and what more is needed on the international front to break the meth ingredient supply chain as well as money-laundering of illicit cash gained from drug sales.
Among the witnesses will be Gary Kendell, the director of the Iowa Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy.
Reporter Jane Norman can be reached at (202) 906-8137 or jnorman@dmreg.com |
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