[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 3 (Wednesday, January 26, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S74-S76]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            METHAMPHETAMINE

  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I rise today to address an issue that is 
tearing rural communities apart--methamphetamine.
  Last week, our Nation's drug czar, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, and his 
deputy, Dr. Don Vereen, came to Montana to focus on methamphetamine. We 
met with law enforcement officers, health care professionals, and 
concerned citizens.
  As many of you know, methamphetamine is a powerful and addictive 
drug. It is considered by many youths to be a casual, soft-core drug 
with few lasting effects. But, in fact, meth can actually cause more 
long-term damage to the body than cocaine or crack.
  Methamphetamine users are often irritable and aggressive. They have 
tremors and convulsions, their hearts working overtime to keep up with 
the frenetic pace set by the drug. Methamphetamine can stop their 
hearts. It can kill.
  The psychological effects of meth use are also severe: Paranoia and 
hallucinations; memory loss and panic; loss of concentration and 
depression.
  We have all heard these symptoms manifested around the country, 
particularly in rural America.
  Time magazine reported just 2 years ago, in June 1998, on the meth 
problem faced in Billings, MT. Time found that until 5 years ago, in 
Billings--Montana's largest city--marijuana and cocaine were the most 
often used illegal substance of choice. Today, as reported in Time 
magazine, it is methamphetamine.
  In 1998, the number of juveniles charged with drug-related or violent 
crimes in the Yellowstone County Youth Court rose by 30 percent.
  In Lame Deer--that is the community of the Northern Cheyenne Indian 
Reservation--kids as young as 8 years old have been seen for meth 
addiction.
  Last November in our State, a meth lab blew up in Great Falls, 
leading to a half dozen arrests.
  Sounds like awful stuff, doesn't it? But if it is bad, why is 
methamphetamine the fastest growing drug in Montana, and particularly 
over rural America in the last 5 years? Why did meth use among high 
school seniors more than double from 1990 to 1996?
  The short answer is that methamphetamine provides a temporary high, a 
short-term euphoria; it feels good; in addition, increases alertness. 
Although the use of the drug later leads to a dulling of the body and 
mind, its short-term lure is one of enhanced physical and mental 
prowess.
  Workers may use the drug to get through an extra shift, particularly 
a night shift; it gives them a real high. Young women often use meth to 
lose weight. It is interesting, but in our State over half of 
methamphetamine

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users are women, single moms, stressed out, working. She needs a break. 
She takes the drug. It helps her get through the day or week. Athletes 
also use it to improve performance. People think it helps. It helps 
them get through the day, helps them to do what they are doing. They do 
not realize how much it hurts.
  Therein lies the danger of methamphetamine. Folks think they can use 
it for a short time with no long-term ill effects--sort of like 
straying from their New Year's diet and eating a couple of pieces of 
cheesecake--but they can't do it, can't get away with it.
  Consider this: Dr. Bill Melega is a doctor at UCLA. He researched the 
effects of methamphetamine on monkeys, giving them meth for 10 days. He 
found that not only did methamphetamine physically alter the brain, but 
these monkeys' brains remained altered 3 years after methamphetamine 
was administered. Again, 3 years after taking the drug, the brain still 
had not recovered.
  Brain scans show that, whether it is postron or other forms of 
technology we have that scan the brain, when an individual is taking 
methamphetamine, the brain is significantly changed. As I said, in the 
case of monkeys--we do not have test results yet on human beings--it is 
permanently changed.
  So meth is a problem. But is it reasonable to believe we can mobilize 
a community-wide effort against it? Is it possible to remove meth from 
Montana and all our communities? I say we can, but it is going to take 
a lot of work.
  A few years ago, for example, in Billings, MT, a group of skinheads 
threatened Billings and its Jewish community with bodily harm. They 
threw bricks through windows of Jewish homes. They threatened violence 
on others and caused a huge problem in my State, particularly in 
Billings.
  But what happened? The people of Billings mobilized. They mobilized 
to defend against that mindless hatred. They banded together, and they 
organized the largest Martin Luther King Day march ever in my State. 
Billings people, in addition to the police, law enforcement officers, 
and others--basically, the people--the community rose to the challenge 
and ousted the skinheads from Billings, MT.
  Just a few days after yet another Martin Luther King celebration, we 
are given the chance all across our country to try again, with 
community efforts, to solve community problems, whether it is racial 
hatred, whatever it is--in this case, among others, this 
methamphetamine. We all have a part to play.
  Kids, you should know that meth will hurt you. It might even kill 
you. Our communities need you to serve as examples of how to live a 
positive, drug-free life. You are doing it already through 
organizations such as SADD--the Students Against Destructive 
Decisions--Big Brothers and Sisters, Smart Moves, Smart Leaders. There 
are lots of organizations.
  One encouraging sign in the fight against meth is the incredible 
people who have been working on this problem.
  In my State of Montana, for example, there is a lady named Virginia 
Gross who for over a decade has been in the ``treatment trenches'' 
serving the most serious cases of meth addiction in Billings, MT. A 
Billings native herself, she got her start in the treatment area, 
working generally with emotionally disturbed kids. She saw that almost 
invariably these emotionally disturbed kids had a drug abuse problem 
tied with them. In doing intakes at a treatment center called the 
Rimrock Foundation, she treated her first meth addict 13 years ago.
  There is virtually no literature on the subject, particularly on meth 
treatment, so she, on her own--working with this and that--developed 
her own treatment techniques--testing this, trying that--and she 
gradually learned what it takes to treat a meth patient effectively.
  In the hundreds of patients she has treated since 1987, she points to 
one as her greatest success. This fellow, strung out since age 14 on 
drugs for more of his life than not, came to Virginia with a 
determination to try anything. He told her he would do whatever it took 
to beat his addiction. He knew he wanted to be clean, and clean he 
became. Three years after starting treatment, this former high school 
dropout got his GED, started college. He has gotten straight A's and 
aspires to be a forest ranger. He is a symbol of Virginia's and his own 
success and particularly a symbol of what young people can do who are 
on drugs and who want to get off.
  Success can be achieved. Meth can be defeated. We all have a part to 
play. Parents, teachers, you must know the symptoms of meth use; 
recognize them. More importantly, you need to talk to your children. It 
is true that teens whose parents talk to them about drugs are half as 
likely to use drugs as those whose parents don't. If you talk to your 
kids, the chances your kids will take drugs is 50 percent less than if 
you don't talk to them about drugs. It is a proven fact. It is a 
statistic that is very amply demonstrated.
  Finally, law enforcement, you have a critical part to play, too. Last 
week, again, the news in Billings reported that the crime rate has 
fallen significantly in the last 2 years, 10 percent this year alone. 
That is good news. But the bad news is, it is also true that Billings' 
violent crime rate has increased over that same time. I believe much of 
that is attributable to drug use. Until we get a handle on the drug 
problem, controlling crime is going to be a very steep uphill battle.
  To that end, Montana must be a member of the Rocky Mountain High-
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA. It is a collaboration 
between State, Federal, and local law enforcement agencies. Then there 
is S. 486, the Meth Act, which passed the Senate last session and waits 
for action in the House. It provides longer prison terms for drug 
criminals, more money for law enforcement, education, prevention, and a 
wider ban on meth paraphernalia. All told, the bill increases Federal 
funding for law enforcement and education by over $50 million.
  We are proud in our State to call Montana the last best place. We 
love our way of life. But in the past several years, we have found that 
even the last best place is not immune to the scourge of 
methamphetamine and all the trouble that comes with it. We have gangs. 
We have thugs. We have crime. We have drugs. We have a problem.
  Today a report was released underscoring the fact that rural 
teenagers are much more likely to smoke, to drink, and to use illegal 
drugs than their urban counterparts. The report was commissioned by the 
Drug Enforcement Administration and funded by the National Institute on 
Drug Abuse, focusing primarily on 13- and 14-year-olds. It showed that 
eighth graders in rural America are 83 percent more likely to use crack 
cocaine than their urban counterparts. They are 50 percent more likely 
to use cocaine, 34 percent more likely to smoke marijuana, 29 percent 
more likely to drink alcohol. Even more shocking, the report showed 
that rural eighth graders were 104 percent more likely to use 
amphetamines, including methamphetamine. That is double the rate of 
urban eighth graders.
  We also have confidence in our State, as I know people do in other 
communities, that we can solve this, particularly in the face of such 
adversity. And this battle must be won. Meth use in Montana and in 
other communities is much too important a battle to lose. So, kids, 
please understand what meth does to you. Serve as examples to your 
peers and what it means to lead a drug-free life. We need you. Parents, 
teachers, recognize the symptoms; talk to your kids. Law enforcement, 
your efforts are bearing fruit. You need more support and all of us, of 
course, will continue to help you, particularly here in the Congress, 
to get it. You need the help of the communities because community 
problems require community solutions.

  One final note. Let me emphasize that last one: Community effort. 
This is only going to be solved in all communities across our country 
if it is a total community effort. Doctors have to get more involved. 
They have to not only get involved with the glamorous cases of heart 
transplants and hip replacements but also meth use, addiction. Doctors 
have to get much more involved. Pediatricians have to talk much more to 
parents of the kids when the kids come into the office. Our faith 
community can do still more, much more throughout our country in 
cracking down on meth, working hard to

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work together with other communities, parents, obviously teachers and 
schools, treatment centers.
  In addition, treatment is so important. So many people are arrested 
for meth use or for peddling meth. They are addicted. They are put in 
prison. What happens? After they are out of prison, they are back on 
meth. There is virtually no treatment or there is very little treatment 
of incarcerated persons in prison because of meth. There has to be 
treatment. Treatment is tough. Treatment takes a long time. It takes 
more than 30 days. It takes more than 60 days. It takes more than 90 
days. Treatment usually takes up to 1 to 2 years. Halfway houses, you 
have to stick with it. You have to stick with it if we are going to 
solve it.
  Look at it this way: If we leave meth users alone in the community, 
it is going to cost the community, estimates are, $38,000, $39,000, 
$40,000 a year. That is the cost of that meth-addicted user to 
communities, whether it is in crimes, stealing to support the habit, 
all the ways that addicted meth users are destructive to a community. 
To put that same person in prison, it is going to be very costly; that 
is, prison without treatment. It is going to cost maybe up to $30,000. 
Incarceration today costs about $30,000 a person a year. Treatment 
alone is about $6,000 to $8,000. Treatment in prison is going to be 
less than letting the person free out on the street in the community. 
It pays.
  Taxpayers, rise up. Recognize your tax dollars are spent much more 
efficiently with treatment, treatment of addicted meth users in prison, 
than without the treatment, working with law enforcement officials, 
coordinating all your efforts.
  Again, I emphasize that final point. Methamphetamine is a national 
problem. It is a State problem, but it is more a community solution, 
all the peoples of the communities working together, certainly with 
States and certainly with Uncle Sam, but you have to do it together as 
a well-knit effort. That is how we will solve this scourge in this 
country.
  I thank the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I compliment the Senator from Montana for 
his eloquent remarks on methamphetamine and the destruction it is 
wreaking not only on Western States such as Montana and Utah but 
throughout the country. We passed a methamphetamine bill out of the 
Senate. We have to get it through the House. I ask my dear friend from 
Montana to help us work with House Members to get that through. If we 
get that through, it will immediately start taking effect.
  What these kids don't realize, and their parents, is once they are 
hooked on meth, it is almost impossible to get them off. I had a 
situation where a very strong friend of mine had a son, a good kid, but 
he was picked up and put in jail once for meth. He promised to be OK. 
He had quite a bit of time to get OK, came outside, he had perfect 
intentions, wanted to be everything he possibly could be. Then, all of 
a sudden, he started making meth in his apartment, got picked up again. 
The father called me and said: I know he has to go to jail. I hope you 
can get the help for him.
  I called the top people and they said they will try and get him into 
a Federal rehabilitation center, but it would take at least 3 years 
just to get him to be able to handle it, not ever get rid of the 
desire, but just to handle it.
  So you parents out there, if you don't realize how important what 
Senator Baucus has been talking about is, then you better start 
thinking. If your kids get hooked on meth, it is going to be a long, 
hard road to get them off. Their lives may be gone.
  We have to pass that bill. I appreciate the distinguished Senator's 
remarks for the most part. I thank him for being here. I hope we will 
all work together to get that bill through Congress so we can solve 
this terrible scourge.
  Mr. BAUCUS. I hope not only for the most part but for the whole part, 
Mr. President. The Senator from Utah is exactly correct. I must 
confess, I learned a lot about the scourge this past week when Gen. 
Barry McCaffrey was in Billings for a whole day and half the next day 
with his people, meeting with treatment people the whole time, various 
aspects of the people who deal with this. It is one big problem, as the 
Senator from Utah said. It is really vicious stuff. Once you are on it, 
it is worse than cocaine or heroin. It is harder to withdraw. The 
treatment is longer. I mean, this is wicked stuff.

  I might add, one fact I learned is that in our State--and I hope it 
is not true in Utah--we have a high percentage of users who shoot it 
with needles, or IV. Therefore, if we don't stamp it out, we are going 
to face a high incidence of hepatitis C and HIV. Dr. Green, an expert 
on the subject in Billings, was shocked last week when he came to 
understand the high rate of users who inject meth instead of taking it 
orally or smoking it.
  All I say is that I hope parents and communities will rally and knock 
this thing out. It is really bad stuff.
  Mr. HATCH. I thank my colleague. It is a real problem, and we have to 
do something about it. I appreciate his remarks.

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