03.04.06

Cantwell, Local Law Enforcement Announce Senate Approval of Nearly $100 Million to Fight Meth

SEATTLE, WA – Saturday, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), joined King County Sheriff Sue Rahr and other local law enforcement officers in Seattle to highlight the significant need for Senate-passed anti-meth legislation on its way to the president’s desk. “The Combat Meth Act,” along with other anti-meth measures included in legislation to re-authorize the Patriot Act, would restrict the sale of products used to produce meth, provide funds to help those affected by meth use, and give new tools to states, law enforcement, and prosecutors working to combat meth. The legislation also authorizes $99 million a year in vital grants to help states and local communities.

“Meth is tearing apart families, lives, and rural communities all across our state,” said Cantwell, a member of the Senate Anti-Meth Caucus. “When police routinely find children on meth sites and see a blatant connection between meth and other crimes like burglary, identity theft, and credit card fraud, we know this is not an isolated problem. It’s not something that will go away on its own, and it’s not something we can ignore. King County is doing a great job and I’m going to make sure they get all the help they need to win this fight.”

At Saturday’s event, Cantwell called on the president to sign the just-passed legislation into law, and emphasized the measure’s importance in confronting meth crimes in King County and across Washington state. King County Sheriff Sue Rahr and Captain Mark Couey, the Head of the Washington State Patrol Investigative Assistance Division, joined Cantwell at Saturday’s e vent to underscore the importance of confronting the meth epidemic.

Local law enforcement officials often attribute recent increases in property crime to meth, which has become a driving force behind crime. The new anti-meth tools approved by the Senate would help King County continue its progress in the meth fight and bring much-needed assistance to rural counties where meth crimes are still on the rise. The bill’s nationwide requirement that medicines containing pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in meth, be kept behind pharmacy counters mirrors an exiting Washington state law.

Anti-meth provisions included in the Patriot Act Conference Report, passed by the Senate on Thursday, would:

  • Move ingredients used to produce meth—including pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine—behind drug store counters, requiring purchasers to show identification and sign a logbook (this mirrors a current Washington state requirement)
  • Limit to 9 grams per month, and 3.6 grams per day, the amount of these medicines one person can buy + Authorize $99 million per year for the Meth Hot Spots program to train state and local law enforcement to investigate and convict meth offenders
  • Require the largest exporting and importing countries of meth precursors to adhere to tougher reporting and certification procedures
  • Authorize $20 million in grant funding during 2006 and 2007 to help children affected by meth production
  • Enhance environmental regulation of meth lab byproducts, hazardous materials, and waste
  • Enhance criminal penalties for the production and trafficking of meth

Cantwell is also the sponsor of “The Arrest Methamphetamine Act” to curb meth trafficking across the U.S.-Canadian border into Washington, as well as legislation to investigate the link between meth crimes and other criminal activity such as identity theft. The growing connection between identity theft, the nation’s fastest-growing crime, and the use and production of methamphetamines, is an issue raised often during Cantwell’s meetings with law enforcement officials from across Washington state.

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