WASHINGTON - The Bush administration wants to cut methamphetamine use in the United States by 15 percent by 2009, relying on cooperation with Mexico and steps at home that include expanded random drug testing in schools.
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Administration officials said Thursday they have reduced the number of U.S. labs that make meth but have not been able to stem the flow of the cheap and highly addictive drug from Mexico, estimated to be the source of 80 percent of the U.S. supply.
Most of the details of the administration's synthetic drug control strategy have been previously announced, including new specialized enforcement teams on both sides of the border.
Fewer than 600,000 Americans use meth, just two-tenths of 1 percent of the nation's population, according to administration estimates. But more than the half the nation's counties count meth as their top problem, said John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
He said the administration supports increased drug testing in schools as a sort of early warning program.
"It is a way to cut down student failure, truancy, gang membership," Walters said. The decision to test students will remain with individual districts, he said.
Many states and the federal Combat Meth Act, signed into law in March, have made meth ingredients like pseudoephedrine harder to obtain. Federal drug agents and local police shut down 11,189 meth labs in the first 10 months of 2005, 26 percent fewer closures than over the same period a year earlier.
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LOL, Just 15% ??????? LMAO
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Administration officials said Thursday they have reduced the number of U.S. labs that make meth but have not been able to stem the flow of the cheap and highly addictive drug from Mexico, estimated to be the source of 80 percent of the U.S. supply.
Most of the details of the administration's synthetic drug control strategy have been previously announced, including new specialized enforcement teams on both sides of the border.
Fewer than 600,000 Americans use meth, just two-tenths of 1 percent of the nation's population, according to administration estimates. But more than the half the nation's counties count meth as their top problem, said John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
He said the administration supports increased drug testing in schools as a sort of early warning program.
"It is a way to cut down student failure, truancy, gang membership," Walters said. The decision to test students will remain with individual districts, he said.
Many states and the federal Combat Meth Act, signed into law in March, have made meth ingredients like pseudoephedrine harder to obtain. Federal drug agents and local police shut down 11,189 meth labs in the first 10 months of 2005, 26 percent fewer closures than over the same period a year earlier.
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LOL, Just 15% ??????? LMAO