We have hit on this story before here in Al's Morning Meeting, but the
Chicago Tribune did a nice update, focusing on rural police departments that contend they were beating back the meth problem and now fear they will lose that ground:
A common fear is
sweeping through the Midwest's drug-enforcement community: that
methamphetamine, the narcotic scourge that has wounded middle America
as no drug ever before, is about to surge again because of extreme
federal slashes in police funding.
In Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and Nebraska,
the story is the same. Just as statistics show that anti-meth task
forces may be beginning to gain an upper hand on those who manufacture,
deal and use the highly addictive and destructive drug, the source of
the majority of these states' drug-enforcement funding is slated to
disappear overnight.
"It couldn't come at a worse time," said Terry Lemming, the statewide
drug-enforcement coordinator for the Illinois State Police. "After all
the success we've started to have, this could set the Midwest back a
good 20 years in our fight against this drug."
The
Tribune reports that the Bush administration, which has said the federal government shouldn't be the primary funder of local and state law enforcement, has proposed a budget that would deeply cut spending in the
Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Grant. Nearly every state uses the grant to finance drug enforcement. Congress may try to replace the money but may not be able to.
The Tribune says if the feds cut this grant program, the effect could be enormous:
In Iowa, where Mexican drug cartels have gained control over the bulk
of meth distribution, officials say they face losing nearly
three-quarters of their drug-enforcement budget.
In Illinois,
where meth continues to make inroads into rural communities, addicting
youth and adults alike, drug-enforcement officials say they would have
to eliminate more than half of the state's meth-fighting task forces.
In Missouri, where a startling 20 percent of the nation's meth arrests
are made, officials grimly predict they will have to start laying off a
significant number of their already overwhelmed drug-enforcement
officers.
Use this map to see how much your local government received from this program in 2007. What did your government do with the money? What can cops show for what they spent?
@Herod Good thinking there: cut funding for education and the...
