Methamphetamine has been a growing epidemic in the western U.S. for a decade. Regulatory controls of the precursor chemicals -- not prohibition -- has been found, in an indepth study by Steve Suo of the Portland, Oregonian, to have been effective in reducing overdoses and crime related to methamphetime use.
So action is necessary.
But I have three points.
- Walters released this plan in a purely partisan political manner.
- Walters and the Bush Administration haven't done anything important on methamphetamine for almost four years.
- This plan exposes what they could have done and didn't.
> "Drug czar" John Walters responded in a partisan political manner. He unveils the action plan accompanied by the Republican Minority Whip and issues a press release that quotes two Republican Senators and two Republican governors -- Taft from Ohio and Fletcher of Kentucky.
No Democrats were involved in the release of the "national" action plan.
> Oregon Senator Ron Wyden (D) has been working on methamphetamine abuse issues since at least 1986 when methamphetamine amendments he had to the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 were enacted.
>Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack (D) has been working on the problem of methamphetamine abuse since he took office in 1997. (His state is the immediate northern neighbor of Missouri where the press conference took place).
>There are two Democratic co-chairs of the Congressional Methamphetamine Caucus, Reps. Rick Larsen (2nd-WA) and Leonard Boswell (3rd-IA).
> California Senator Diane Feinstein (D) has worked on methamphetamine issues and sponsored control legislation for a decade.
> DEA Administrator Karen Tandy refused to answer questions from the Portland, Oregonian about DEA's regulatory and enforcement failures. One company kept shipping pseudoephedrine, a key methamphetamine ingredient, after 47 "warning" letters from DEA to stop. The most recent "warning" letter was sent in May 2003, the Oregonian expose says.
> The National Action Plan is filled with bureaucratic fluff: "assess" this, "develop guidelines" for that, "increase research" for something else.
> If the Administration was interested in substance, not partisan political fluff, in the time it took prepare the fancy "action plan," they could have told the DEA General Counsel, you have 30 days to prepare regulations for publication in the Federal Register to control the imports and distribution of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine -- and that could have been announced.
Sterlingpoints.com from Eric Sterling
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