Bush aides pledge to fight meth
WASHINGTON – In an apparent response to congressional charges that it was ignoring methamphetamine abuse, three high-level Bush administration officials came to a Tennessee drug court Thursday to offer “innovative solutions” to combat a problem that has spread rapidly across the United States.
“The scourge of methamphetamine demands unconventional thinking and innovative solutions to fight the devastation it leaves behind,” said Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. “I have directed U.S. attorneys to make prosecution of methamphetamine-related crimes a top priority and to seek the harshest penalties.”
Gonzales was joined in Nashville, Tenn., by the director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, John Walters, and Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt to announce $1 million for anti-meth ads, $16.2 million over three years for treatment grants and a new Web site, www.MethResources.gov, which offers information about the drug.
But members of Congress, who have complained that their constituents are demanding more action against users, said the modest measures announced Thursday were far too little and possibly too late.
Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., a clinical psychologist who worked in drug treatment programs before his election to Congress, said he was happy to see the administration break its focus on marijuana. “On the rhetoric front, over the last four to five years, they have said very little about meth,” he said.