WASHINGTON – Before recessing for the Thanksgiving holiday, the U.S. Senate gave unanimous approval to a resolution offered by Senators Chuck Grassley and Max Baucus of Montana designating November as National Methamphetamine Awareness Month.
“Meth is extremely dangerous and it remains one of the most threatening drugs to Iowans,” Grassley said. “By bringing greater national awareness to the meth problem we hope more energy will be given to fighting it at the national level. Meth threatens our families, friends, and neighbors. As a senator from a rural state, I've seen first hand the devastating impact meth has had and how it can tear our communities apart. Congress heard the call and helped plug one leak by decreasing the number of homemade meth labs with the Combat Methamphetamine Enforcement Act of 2005, but another leak has sprung up and high-powered foreign meth is now coming in from outside the . Whether the meth is foreign or domestic, none of us can rest easy in the effort to combat this devastating drug.
As the co-chairman of the Senate Caucus of International Narcotics Control and a member of the Senate Anti-Meth Caucus, Grassley has been a leader in the Senate in fighting illegal drugs.
As ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, he joined Chairman Baucus in calling a hearing in September to address the growing problem of high powered meth being imported across the border from . Grassley invited testimony from Gary Kendell, the Director of the Iowa Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy, about the dramatic reduction in domestic meth labs in Iowa and how 90 percent of meth in Iowa now comes from the Southwestern U.S. and . This important hearing addressed the impact foreign meth is having on our communities and discussed efforts to keep the pressure to stop meth from getting into the Untied States.
Grassley also recently took issue with the Office of National Drug control Policy on the effectiveness of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.
And, in May 2007 he introduced the Methamphetamine Production Prevention Act of 2007 with Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois . This legislation promotes the use of electronic logbook systems by pharmacies to better track the sale of ingredients that could be used to make meth.
In addition, Grassley and Senator Dianne Feinstein of California have jointly sponsored of the Saving Kids from Dangerous Drugs Act which would double the federal criminal penalties for drug dealers who flavor or disguise illegal drugs in order to make them more appealing to people under age 21. The senators also have sponsored legislation to reauthorize a $20 million grant program which is helping treat children who live in a home where methamphetamine was manufactured or distributed.
Ten years ago in Iowa, Grassley founded a community-based anti-drug coalition called “Face It Together” to support efforts by parents, educators, businesses, religious leaders, law enforcement officials, health care providers, youth groups and news organizations to combat illegal drugs.
Here is the text of the statement that Sen. Grassley submitted for The Congressional Record regarding National Methamphetamine Awareness Month.
National Methamphetamine Awareness Month
By Senator Grassley
Mr. President, I’m pleased to join my colleague, Senator Baucus, in sponsoring the National Methamphetamine Awareness Month resolution of 2007. As a senior member of the United States Senate representing a state confronting an epidemic of methamphetamine abuse, and as Co-Chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, I’ve often been confronted with heartbreaking stories of the destructive nature meth abuse has on families and children. All too often, meth abuse not only ruins the life of the user, it disrupts the lives of the users’ family, friends and the community at large. That is why members of Congress must do everything we can to ensure that communities across the country have the tools and support they need to stop meth in its tracks.
Since the passage of the Combat Meth Act in 2005, an act that restricted the sale of a main ingredient of meth known as pseudoephedrine or PSE, the number of home-grown meth labs has dramatically decreased throughout the nation. In spite of this encouraging development, the National Association of Counties reports, in its recent survey of county sheriffs, that meth remains the number one drug problem in almost half the counties across the country. In some cases, sheriffs reported, in this survey, that not only has the rate of meth abuse stayed the same it has actually increased. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) estimates that over 80% of the meth in this country is smuggled in from by drug cartels who produce this poison in superlabs.
Senator Baucus and I have held hearings to examine ways in which the government could break the meth supply chain while helping to reduce the number of people suffering from meth. One of the areas discussed, to help achieve these goals, was to boost our efforts to educate and raise awareness among the public. We have to do a better job to reach those who don’t view meth as a deadly drug and we have to ensure that our children never try meth. Studies show that the longer you keep a child drug-free, before the age of 20, chances are very good that they will never try or become addicted to drugs.
In my state of Iowa , we have 22 community based organizations that are designed just for this purpose. One of these organizations, that I founded, called “Face It Together” or FIT encourages parents, educators, businesses, religious leaders, law enforcement officials, health care providers, youth groups and news organizations to work together to come up with new and creative ways to confront drug abuse within their communities. While some of these community coalitions receive some financial support from the federal government, the real difference is made by all of those who volunteer within their communities to ensure they remain drug-free.