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Sunday, April 20, 2008 1:03 AM CDT
EDITORIAL: Cold medicines law has helped curb meth problem
By the JG/T-C Editorial Board
editorial@jg-tc.com
Busting meth hasn’t come easy, but with the enactment of the law controlling the sale of pseudoephedrine cold medicines and the unrelenting efforts of law enforcement agencies, we may be succeeding.
According to the Illinois attorney general, meth lab busts decreased 50 percent since the meth precursor was restricted to over-the-counter sales. Each sale requires the signature of the individual who purchases pseudoephedrine cold medicines.
Without pseudoephedrine, meth cannot be manufactured. Meth is becoming a problem with a solution.
The curbing of an epidemic that has ruined so many lives and claimed many others is welcome. Meth is a consuming curse, an overnight addition that drives people to risk their lives to manufacture it.
Meth is created through a volatile process which can result in fire and death. Authorities have had to deal with many such tragedies.
The kitchen-sink production of meth in the presence of children is not that uncommon. It can become a deadly family affair.
When meth crimes were on the rise five years ago, state government took a bipartisan approach to tackling what was then a crisis. At the time, 40 percent of those incarcerated in the Coles County jail were there directly, or indirectly, in connection with meth crimes.
Efforts continue to establish more drug court systems to combat drug usage and to help straighten out the lives of people addicted to drugs.
The program has worked so far in Coles County. It features a high level of supervision of abusers, including employment and treatment which allows them a chance to avoid conviction in some cases.
“Coles County is on the cutting edge for this area,” Hank Pauls, president of the Meth Awareness Coalition, said during an interview in early March.
The war against meth will continue. Budget funding for the various meth task forces in Illinois, including the East Central Illinois Task Force in Coles, Moultrie and Shelby counties, is always tenuous at best.
It is a war waged vigorously and effectively by meth task forces throughout the state.
Implementation of programs to rehabilitate and return meth abusers to productive roles in society are an important component in the effort to curb meth usage.
— JG/T-C Editorial Board
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Locke wrote on Apr 21, 2008 11:00 PM:
Sounds like this whole cold medicine issue has solved the bigger meth problem. Wrong, dead wrong. Here's what the DEA says about the meth problem in Illinois:
"Illinois is faced with a two-pronged methamphetamine problem. First, large quantities of methamphetamine produced by Mexico-based Drug Trafficking Organizations are transported to the state. Mexican drug trafficking organizations transport methamphetamine into Illinois mostly from California and Mexico. They use the same distribution channels used for other drugs. Outlaw motorcycle gangs and Hispanic street gangs control the retail distribution of methamphetamine. There is increasing evidence that methamphetamine is being distributed in the Chicago area, most likely the result of rising availability of the drug as more Mexico-produced methamphetamine destined for markets in other areas transits Chicago. Second, small-scale methamphetamine laboratories have proliferated greatly in many areas of the state. Methamphetamine is the principal drug of concern in the rural areas of central and southern Illinois."
So yeah, from out small perspective, maybe we are succeeding in our own little backyard... but only to have meth sold much like other drugs that are imported and distributed downstate (and upstate from STL.)
Meth labs incidents are down from 1,098 in 2004 to a mere 342 in 2007. Those are only lab busts. Natural selection anyone? The stupid people have already been caught; you still have the smarter ones out there still cooking the drug. Problem is, while lab busts are indeed down, use is still going up. Talk about selective facts! Obviously the druggies are still getting their juice -- be it from smarter local operations, or from outside sources.
Basically what we have here is another one of the fine editiorals. Notice how it doesn't say the Illinois Attorney General by name? I mean, she's not my favorite person either -- don't get me wrong. Still, it was her initiative (along with a few other laws like making transporting or storing anhydrous ammonia a class 4 felony) that made this miracle in the War on Meth possible, so maybe some credit is due?
Look at what the article is also saying, without the funding we might start to loose ground. Notice how the article doesn't say why we are losing funding and who is cutting the (federal) funding.
A lot of opinion, based on very little fact. "