[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 115 (Wednesday, September 14, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9997-S9999]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE SCOURGE OF METHAMPHETAMINE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I take a few moments to comment on one 
aspect of the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill. In doing 
so, I want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their 
bipartisan cooperation in getting this bill done, which I believe we 
can do by tonight. The funding in this bill is critical to the 
functioning of our Government, and I expect it will pass with strong 
bipartisan support.
  Before we cast a lot more votes, I do want to call everybody's 
attention to one particular aspect of this bill that has ramifications 
throughout each of our States that people are becoming more and more 
aware of but deserves a lot more attention, and this is the 
methamphetamine crisis that is raging all across this country.
  As a physician, as well as a legislator, I am troubled by this 
growing meth crisis. As we travel across our States and look at the 
devastation that is caused by this particular drug and the making and 
manufacturing of this drug, we do need to act. In the last 10 years, 
meth has become America's No. 1 drug problem--before marijuana, 
cocaine, heroin, and any other drug.
  In Tennessee, we have been particularly hard hit. In 2004, Tennessee 
ranked No. 2, tied with Iowa and behind Missouri, in the number of 
methamphetamine lab seizures. A good friend of mine, Sandy Mattice, who 
is a U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, describes 
meth as ``the worst stuff that we have seen.'' And it

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has led to some of the worst, most disturbing cases of violence and 
abuse we have ever seen.
  Last month, as I was traveling across Tennessee, I heard again and 
again from people from all walks of life about the devastating impact 
meth is having on the people of our State. I heard the stories about 
meth destroying individuals' lives and families' lives, how mothers and 
fathers who are addicts abuse their children or each other during the 
highs as well as the withdrawals from meth. We have heard again how 
addicts steal from their own parents or even their own children because 
they are so desperate for money to buy meth.

  One Tennessee case was so horrific that it made national news and 
ultimately changed Tennessee law. In June of last year, authorities 
found 3-year-old Haley Spicer at her father's mobile home in Campbell 
County. Haley had been burned with cigarettes and scalded with hot 
water in a bathtub. The fumes in her meth-addicted father's meth lab 
were so toxic that Haley's eyelids had even melted shut. Haley had to 
undergo a number of surgeries to open her eyes. She faces a lot more in 
terms of surgeries and operations to rebuild and reconstruct her nose 
and repair her ear.
  Haley's father, Tommy Joe Owens, has been convicted on three counts 
of aggravated child abuse and one count of neglect. Owens, who claims 
to have never hurt his daughter, faces up to 60 years on each count at 
a sentencing hearing next month.
  His live-in girlfriend Charlotte Claiborne pleaded no contest to the 
same charges and will likely be sentenced to 20 years. Haley's case was 
so disturbing that it led to swift and aggressive legislative action 
back in Tennessee. This August, the State legislature passed Haley's 
Law which drastically toughens the child abuse penalties. This was an 
important victory for the youngest victims of meth, but it addresses 
the problem after the fact, after meth has led to the violence. It is 
time for all of us to address what we can do to prevent this meth 
abuse.
  Haley's father should be in jail for a long time, but we have to do 
more. Local law enforcement is crying out for our help.
  Meth is highly addictive, and it is highly destructive as a 
substance. Users experience a powerful boost, described as more 
powerful than any other drug, three times the intensity of cocaine. The 
high lasts for longer, up to 8 hours. Users take hit after hit on 
sleepless binges that can last up to 2 and sometimes even 3 weeks. Once 
sucked in, many users find it impossible to climb out.
  Take, for example, Lynn Noland, also of Tennessee. Lynn did not plan 
on becoming an addict, nor for that matter did she plan on becoming 
what she did, a drug dealer. It started 4 years ago when Lynn was a 36-
year-old marketing executive and she tried her first hit. One hit 
became an addiction and she quit her well-paying job and started 
trading meth ingredients to support her habit.
  She would disguise herself as a farmer, put on overalls and put on a 
ball cap and stop by the co-op to be able to purchase ingredients 
undetected in an unsuspecting way.
  Another dangerous aspect of meth is it can be cooked anywhere with 
store-bought ingredients. So it is very mobile. It is easy to make and 
it is hard to detect where it is made. Lynn started cooking the drug 
herself in caves, as she describes it, and in little sheds.
  ``I could not live without meth,'' she said. ``I could not lift my 
head off the pillow to brush my teeth without it.''
  Eventually, Lynn was arrested. She lost custody of her children and 
ended up in a halfway house. Lynn was lucky. She was able to kick her 
habit. Most addicts need repeated episodes of rehabilitation. Many 
never succeed and many never survive. They die of severe burns from lab 
explosions. Some commit suicide. Some are killed by a spouse who is 
also addicted.
  Meth leads to depression; it leads to psychosis; it leads to skin 
infections; it leads to high blood pressure; it leads to hepatitis C; 
it leads to kidney damage; it leads to severe tooth decay, to name a 
few. The list goes on. The greatest health risk of meth is the impact 
it has on the brain. It rewires the brain. Methamphetamine produces a 
huge rush of a chemical called dopamine in the brain, and that results 
in a huge surge, a euphoria that results from this increase in dopamine 
transmission.
  Over time, however, this excess of dopamine destroys the 
transmission, the neurological linkage system, within the brain, and 
users experience an inability to have emotions or pleasure without more 
amphetamine coming into the system all the time. Eventually, in a 
pattern similar to Parkinson's disease, there are no terminals there--
they are destroyed--which can release dopamine and users experience 
prolonged and often permanent depression.
  Thus, the personal cost is staggering. The cost to the community at 
large is staggering. An estimated 12 million Americans have tried 
methamphetamine. It is estimated that about 1.5 million people are 
regular users. In many areas of the country, the medical costs for 
county jails have doubled because of meth. Last month, a colleague of 
mine at Vanderbilt, Dr. Jeffrey Guy, who is director of Vanderbilt 
Medical Center's burn unit, which is in Nashville, told Newsweek: I do 
not know if we will have a burn unit 5 to 10 years from now if 
Vanderbilt continues to take on the large burden of $5 million to $10 
million per year in uncompensated care for patients burned in meth lab 
explosions.
  Doctors estimate that treating burn victims exceeds about $10,000 a 
day per patient, most of whom do not have health insurance. Meth abuse 
often leads to violent crimes, including domestic violence, assaults, 
robberies, and burglaries. Local law enforcement is finding itself 
overwhelmed. Most rural police departments do not have the resources to 
deal with all of the problems brought forward by meth to deal with the 
lab explosions, the expensive toxic waste cleanup required when one 
goes in and removes these labs. Each pound of methamphetamine leaves 
behind 5 to 6 pounds of this toxic waste, and the cleanup involves 
dangerous exposure to our law enforcement officers engaged in removal 
of these labs.
  A very effective way to stop the meth crisis is to restrict the 
ingredients that make up meth and to restrict it all across the country 
in all 50 States. Jerry Estes, a district attorney general in 
Tennessee, has seen a dramatic reduction in meth lab seizures since our 
State, Tennessee, passed the bill restricting access to cold medicines 
that serve as the ingredients for the manufacture of meth. North 
Carolina, however, has not adopted similar legislation. As a result, 
what has been found, at least in southeast Tennessee, is that people 
will simply cross the border to buy those ingredients and bring them 
back home. Thus, we need a uniform policy across this country.

  Jerry tells me the single greatest impact we could have on reducing 
meth abuse is requiring all 50 States to restrict access to 
pseudoephedrine. That is what the Combat Meth Act does. It requires 
States to restrict access to all cold medicines containing meth 
precursors so that meth producers simply cannot shop and cruise from 
State to State.
  In closing, I thank Senators Talent and Feinstein for taking the lead 
on this issue and for their hard work in getting the Combat Meth Act 
adopted as part of the appropriations process. The Combat Meth Act is a 
critical first step to defeating this ongoing crisis. I urge my 
colleagues to follow this issue very closely because this is not going 
to be the end of it. This is the No. 1 drug problem facing the people 
of our States today. We will be talking about it a lot more in the 
coming days and weeks. Meth is destroying individuals, it is destroying 
families, and it is destroying communities. We cannot tolerate that. 
America needs to put a stop to this growing health and moral crisis.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. DORGAN. The majority leader, my colleague from Tennessee, speaks 
of methamphetamine. It is an enormous problem in this country, 
especially in rural States. I certainly appreciate the comments he has 
made today. It is something on which we must provide enormous focus. It 
is destroying lives. It is one of the most highly addictive drugs we 
know. You can cook methamphetamine virtually anywhere--an abandoned 
farmhouse.

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You can buy the products from which you make methamphetamine, in many 
States, across the counter. This is a deadly drug causing havoc for so 
many people.
  If you talk to law enforcement people about dealing with 
methamphetamine, they will tell you that when they arrest someone 
involved in methamphetamine, they don't quite know what they are going 
to get. These are people who can become the most enormously violent 
people in the world, or they can be passive. You don't quite know what 
you are going to find, what you are going to get. It contributes to 
substantial crime and destroys lives. I appreciate the comments of my 
colleague, the majority leader.

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