September 20, 2006

Pryce: Meth Is a Growing
Threat to Central Ohio

Pryce, Drug Czar John Walters Hold Meth Roundtable in London

COLUMBUS, OH – On Monday, Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (R-Columbus) and Drug Czar John Walters joined Madison and Union County law enforcement at the Madison County Court House for a roundtable discussion on the battle against methamphetamine use in Ohio.

“The impact of methamphetamine on users, their families, and the social fabric of our communities is incomprehensibly devastating,” said Pryce.  “As attaining another meth high becomes the user’s sole objective, all other considerations -- employment, housing, education, morality – are completely disregarded, and their lives are irreparably ruined.”

The roundtable discussion focused on current federal and local efforts to curb meth use in central Ohio. Once considered primarily a threat to America’s southwest, use and production of methamphetamine has moved steadily northward from southwest Ohio and into the central part of the state. With insights from representatives of the farming community, the roundtable focused in part on the problems associated with the theft of anhydrous ammonia from farms and farm supply stores. Anhydrous ammonia is used by farmers as a nitrogen-based fertilizer, but is frequently stolen by meth cooks to create the deadly drug.

Pryce said, “The methamphetamine epidemic is not hype – it is a real threat to central Ohio.  Federal, state, and local governments, law enforcement, parents, and schools must continue to increase and strengthen efforts to educate our young people and our central Ohio community about the risks of meth.”

Statistics paint a troubling picture of the growing meth problem: the DEA reports that since 1999, the number of illegal meth labs seized in Ohio has risen nearly 2000%, from 14 in 1999 to 286 in 2004.  According to the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 5.2% of Americans age 12 and older had tried methamphetamines at least once.

Congresswoman Pryce’s Record on Meth

• Voted for the Comprehensive Methamphetamine Control Act of 1996 (MCA), which regulates the chemicals that are used to produce methamphetamine. The bill:
• broadened the controls on listed chemicals used in the production of methamphetamine
• increased penalties for the trafficking and manufacturing of methamphetamine and
• expanded the controls of products containing the licit chemicals ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and phenylpropanolamine (PPA).
• Voted for the Children's Health Act of 2000 -- includes provisions dealing with methamphetamine prevention, production, enforcement, treatment and abuse.
• Cosponsored and voted for the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act, which included provisions to strengthen Federal, state, and local efforts to combat the spread of methamphetamine.
• Voted for an amendment to the TTHUD FY07 Appropriations bill to increase funding for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program by $8 million.
  
  
  On Monday, Pryce and Drug Czar John Walters joined Madison and
  Union County law enforcement for a roundtable discussion on the
  battle against methamphetamine use in Ohio.