Congressman
John E. Peterson

THE FRONT LINE OF PENNSYLVANIA’S METH FIGHT REQUIRES COOPERATION, RESOURCES AND PERSEVERANCE

By Congressman John E. Peterson
July 2005

The Fifth District of Pennsylvania is home to some of the most beautiful places in the country. Replete with extraordinary foliage, vast mountain woodlands, endless river valleys, and soft rolling hills, our area boasts some of the most breathtaking views around – views that beckon pride among all who live here, but belie the depravity of our region’s growing addiction to an insidious monster simply known by most as “meth.”

Indeed, the present-day observer would be forgiven for believing that our area is without serious affliction. But spend time in some of the small towns in the area, especially in Crawford and Venango Counties, and you quickly learn that our region is positioned squarely on the frontlines of the national battle against methamphetamine abuse.

Simply stated, meth addiction is tantamount to death on two legs – and its spread represents among the most profound dangers our area faces today. For one, it is easy to create – produced by chemically combining household ingredients found in many over-the-counter cold medications. It’s inexpensive to buy – costing a fraction of what other high-end synthetic drugs go for. And it is among the most addictive products we’ve ever seen – with some reports suggesting it can be up to 30 times more potent than crack cocaine.

It’s not an overstatement to suggest that meth production and abuse – long considered a West Coast/border state phenomenon – has rapidly metastasized over the past five years into epidemic of grand proportions. Sadly, our community has not escaped the reach of this disaster. In fact, it has helped incubate it. According to a 2004 report issued by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office 42 of the 74 meth labs seized in the state were located in our area.

If those statistics don’t give you pause, consider them within the context of what can only be called a heroic effort by state and local police to identify the problem and root it out in its infant stages. One only needs to go to Titusville for evidence of this, where the Titusville Policy Department has set up a “war room,” of sorts, to stem the further propagation of meth into its community. The Titusville P.D. is now considered a clearinghouse for meth-related training and information, and stands today as an example of what local authorities can accomplish when they get aggressive on meth before the drug has a chance to spread throughout the community.

Earlier this month I had the chance to witness the Titusville operation in full force when I was in town for the Community Meth Summit that I helped organize. That meeting brought together over 170 state and local law enforcement officials, treatment providers, and community activists to hear some thoughts and ideas from authorities with first-hand experience in the local fight against meth.

I left that meeting with a number of helpful insights; chief among them the suggestion that any effort to curb the steady stream of meth to rural Pennsylvania would have to cut across political, regulatory, and, most importantly, geographical boundaries to be successful.

That’s why I’ve signed on to federal legislation that will go a long way in helping us better track the importation of chemicals used in the production of meth, while ensuring that local businesses aren’t unreasonably burdened by new paperwork requirements or compliance costs.

This legislation seeks to monitor these chemicals on two separate and distinct transactional levels. The first is the international level, where large shipments of chemicals used in the production of meth – known as “precursor” elements – are often diverted to mega-laboratories in Mexico, only to end up in places like Warren, Titusville, and Oil City. 

And the second is the retail and wholesale level, where smaller amounts of precursor chemicals are purchased by meth “cooks” and used to create hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine in domestic laboratories each year.

Of course, I’m not sold on the idea that pulling Sudafed and Dimetap off store shelves will provide the ultimate answer to our problem. But nor do I believe that an individual consumer needs eight grams of pseudoephedrine to properly treat the common cold.

No, like so many of the issues we handle here in Washington, I suspect the answer will be found somewhere between that delicate balance of convenience and safety; individual needs and practical commonsense.  

But as a former grocery store owner myself, I understand that many of these drugs illicitly used to create meth have very legitimate purposes. That’s why my colleagues and I in the Congressional Rural Caucus (CRC) recently asked representatives from the retail industry to come to Capitol Hill to share their insights into how Congress can best limit pseudoephedrine access to those who seek to abuse it, while at the same time keeping common cold and allergy medicines available for consumers who need them.

Also during that meeting, we announced the creation of a special task force devoted entirely to educating members and the public about the status and scope of the meth crisis in rural America. I expect this task force to be a great source of new information, and I look forward to gathering valuable advice from experts and colleagues here in Washington that I can share with police and local authorities back home in the Fifth District.

Beyond monitoring supply, though, I believe we must do more to address the collateral damage meth imposes on our communities. To start, we need to organize the local children and youth agencies, law enforcement, and hospitals to move toward a clear protocol regarding children found in meth labs. Toward that end, I’ve enlisted the help of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) to provide resources and training for police and local officials involved in lab clean-up and the treatment of children found at these toxic sites.

We also need to address the environmental impact that meth has on our communities. Experts have found that for every pound of meth produced in a homemade laboratory, up to six pounds of toxic material is left behind. This waste is exacting a heavy toll on human health and the quality of our air, water, and soil. It’s also exacting a heavy toll on local budgets, with a staggering percentage of community tax revenues going toward meth lab cleanup costs instead of other important public services.

Make no mistake: Methamphetamine abuse and production is among the most serious issues facing rural America today. As such, it deserves our full attention in Washington, and I intend to make sure the issue remains at the forefront of the public policy debate among Republicans and Democrats alike. I look forward to working closely with police and local authorities back home while I continue to do my part down in Washington to carve out a prominent place in the national consciousness for issues related to meth.