National Methamphetamine Awareness Month

Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I am pleased to join my colleague, Senator Baucus, in sponsoring the National Methamphetamine Awareness Month resolution of 2007. As a senior Member of the Senate representing a State confronting an epidemic of methamphetamine abuse and as cochairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, I have often been confronted with heartbreaking stories of the destructive nature meth abuse has on families and children. All too often, meth abuse not only ruins the life of the user, it disrupts the lives of the users family, friends, and the community at large. That is why Members of Congress must do everything we can to ensure that communities across the country have the tools and support they need to stop meth in its tracks.

Since the passage of the Combat Meth Act in 2005, an act that restricted the sale of a main ingredient of meth known as pseudoephedrine, or PSE, the number of home-grown meth labs has dramatically decreased throughout the Nation. In spite of this encouraging development, the National Association of Counties reports, in its recent survey of county sheriffs, that meth remains the No. 1 drug problem in almost half the counties across the country. In some cases, sheriffs reported, in this survey, that not only has the rate of meth abuse stayed the same, it has actually increased. The Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA, estimates that over 80 percent of the meth in this country is smuggled in from Mexico by drug cartels who produce this poison in superlabs.

Senator Baucus and I have held hearings to examine ways in which the Government could break the meth supply chain while helping to reduce the number of people suffering from meth. One of the areas discussed, to help achieve these goals, was to boost our efforts to educate and raise awareness among the public. We have to do a better job to reach those who don't view meth as a deadly drug, and we have to ensure that our children never try meth. Studies show that the longer you keep a child drug-free, before the age of 20, chances are very good that they will never try or become addicted to drugs.

In my State of Iowa, we have 22 community based organizations that are designed just for this purpose. One of these organizations, that I founded, called Face It Together, or FIT, encourages parents, educators, businesses, religious leaders, law enforcement officials, health care providers, youth groups, and news organizations to work together to come up with new and creative ways to confront drug abuse within their communities. While some of these community coalitions receive some financial support from the Federal Government, the real difference is made by all of those who volunteer within their communities to ensure they remain drug-free.

Although much remains to be done to eradicate meth from our communities, this resolution is part of a vast, ongoing effort to ensure meth abuse does not expand further into our society. I am please that this resolution is supported by the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, CADCA, and I urge my colleagues to join us in support of our efforts against meth abuse.