National Meth Day

It is the war America can't win, and I'm not talking about Iraq. I am talking about the War on Drugs. After thirty-five years, about the only thing that's changed is the drug of the moment, and right now its Meth.

The President declared today National Methamphetamine Awareness Day...and the Attorney General went on live television to recognize the sorry fact that nearly 12 million Americans...almost five percent of the population above the age of 12...have tried the powerfully addictive drug, which averages about 600,000 users a month.

Crank heads deteriorate quickly from cool high, to rotting teeth, no sleep, severe weight loss, scarred faces, and arms scratched raw in the search for imaginary bugs, not to mention other frequent complications, like HIV and Hepatitis C.

The most ironic thing about meth on its big day is that it is mostly home grown. Unlike cocaine and heroin, which we have spent billions chasing overseas, alienating native populations, while poisoning the environment, meth is most often made in small labs in America.

Anyplace you have a Wal-Mart selling cold medicine; you can have a meth lab. All you need is the pseudoephdrine and some other toxic chemicals still easily available despite recent legislation like the Combat Meth Act. And meth doesn't just shatter families, it threatens entire communities.

Listen to Mark Shook, Sheriff of North Carolina's Watauga County. "What they'll do is throw it outside in the backyard. Take it to the nearby creek, pour it in the creek. It's contaminating the land, it's contaminating the water, and if you live downstream that's probably where your drinking water's coming from."

Jerry Wilson's the Watauga County Prosecutor says, "Methamphetamine is the only one that pollutes our environment and presents a danger of chemical exposure to the general public."
 
Since President Nixon declared the War on Drugs in 1972, it's cost hundreds of Billions in wasted tax money, ruined countless lives, filled our prisons and done virtually nothing to cut down on drug use. Now Meth is all the rage, tomorrow it'll be some other scourge, and one day Washington will realize that the only way to stop drug abuse is convince people not to use it.