WASHINGTON — In an apparent response to congressional charges that the Bush administration was ignoring methamphetamine abuse, three high-level officials went to a Tennessee drug court Thursday to offer "innovative solutions" to combat a problem that has spread rapidly across the country.
"The scourge of methamphetamine demands unconventional thinking and innovative solutions to fight the devastation it leaves behind," Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales said. "I have directed U.S. attorneys to make prosecution of methamphetamine-related crimes a top priority and seek the harshest penalties."
Gonzales was joined in Nashville by the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, John P. 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 website, www.MethResources.gov, which contains information about the drug.
But critics in Congress, who have said their constituents demand more action against users, called the measures far too little and possibly too late.
Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.), chairman of a House Government Reform subcommittee that authorizes legislation involving drug control, has held hearings criticizing the administration for not taking strong enough measures to fight meth.
"We're looking for a scream, not a peep," he said. "This proposal, unfortunately, doesn't have anything new in it. At my last hearing they waved a report with a list of recommendations, and this was all in it."
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.
The administration has repeatedly put forward statistics showing that the numbers of drug lab busts, high school students using the drug, and interceptions of drugs that can be used to make meth were all on the decline. Walters said last month that there was no meth epidemic, though he did note Thursday that the drug posed "unique" problems.
But Baird said the change of attitude would offer little comfort to local law enforcement and treatment programs, whose federal aid had been cut by hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
