Hopeful that more federal money will still come in 2006 to help fight crime related to methamphetamine abuse, Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling's hopes were temporarily dashed last week as Congress adjourned for the holidays.
Scheduled as a rider on the USA Patriot Act renewal bill, legislation geared toward regulating the production of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine was killed when the U.S. Senate voted to extend the Patriot Act for six months. Methamphetamine legislation that was approved by the House of Representatives earlier in the month was stricken from the bill.
Femling, who sits on the board of the National Association of Counties (NACo), said the organization has adopted methamphetamine addiction as its top priority in the near term.
"Young people's lives are being destroyed by meth," Femling said. "(Police) are taking children out of "meth lab" houses ... For those reasons communities are stepping up to get something done."
The legislation would have limited purchases of cold medicine that contains ephedrine or pseudoephedrine to about 120 pills per day and would have required retailers to store off-the-shelf medicine like Sudafed, NyQuil and Benadryl behind the counter. The bill was also geared to monitoring manufacturers of the base ingredients used for making meth. The goal to prevent shipments of large quantities to "superlabs" is expected to be a top order of business when the Senate reconvenes this winter. It will be for NACo.
Blaine County Probation Officer Jodi Brown said one of his probation clients told him last week that he does not want to come back to the Wood River Valley until meth has been eradicated.
"We have some successes (getting people off of meth), but families have no idea what's going on," Brown said. "It's so addictive. What I'd like to see is a reward (if you help) bust your local meth dealer."
Brown echoed Femling, who said that community watch programs and intervention will also have to be part of the fight to protect Blaine County from problems associated with meth addiction.
