Max Baucus - United States Senator from Montana

BAUCUS HOLDS TOWN HALL TO HELP BOOST METH PREVENTION, INTERVENTION

Senator Says Funding Needed In Key Areas To Help Stamp Out Meth Production, Use

September 28, 2006

(Washington, D.C.) – Montana’s senior U.S. Senator Max Baucus and other senators today held a town-hall style meeting to highlight the need for more dollars for prevention and intervention efforts in the war against methamphetamine production and use.

Baucus was joined by Senators Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), law enforcement officials and meth prevention and intervention experts from North Dakota, Washington state and Montana.

Baucus, Dorgan and Cantwell today also sent a letter to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Commerce, Justice, Science; and Labor, Health and Human Services and Education – the panels charged with funding drug prevention and intervention programs – urging lawmakers to maintain or increase funding for federal grant programs for law enforcement, drug abuse prevention and treatment programs.

“As you finalize the FY07 appropriations bills, we urge you to maintain or increase funding for federal grant programs for state and local law enforcement, drug abuse prevention, and drug treatment programs that are vital to combating the methamphetamine epidemic that still plagues our country,” wrote Baucus, Dorgan and Cantwell to the appropriations panels today. “Meth remains a major problem for our communities and we need sufficient federal funding to keep up the fight. Our rural areas have been hit hard by the destructive effects of meth and continue to suffer a myriad of social problems caused by meth abuse including increased child neglect.”

Baucus also invited Peg Shea, Executive Director of the Montana Meth Project, to attend the Meth Town Hall and to highlight the challenges Montana faces with meth prevention, intervention and treatment efforts.

“The Montana Meth Project is a high quality prevention campaign that has national significance,” said Shea. So many of our youth are falling victims to this drug without knowing the real life threatening consequences of meth use. The Montana Meth Project is using a media approach to educate teens and change attitudes.”

Baucus remains committed to the fight against meth.

Baucus helped write and pass legislation that is awaiting the President’s expected signature – the Child and Family Services Improvements Act of 2006 – which includes $145 million in grant funding to help combat meth and substance abuse related to child welfare and foster care because meth plays a large role in welfare cases in Montana. Baucus said the majority of all foster care placements are directly attributable to drug use and more than half of the foster care placements that are due to drug use are attributed directly to meth.

In 2002, Baucus got five Montana counties into the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA, which helps drug task forces coordinate efforts to curb drug trafficking. Baucus co-sponsored the Combat Meth Act of 2005 – legislation that got pseudophedrine off of store shelves and behind the counter so it’s harder to make meth.

Baucus also continuously fights for additional Byrne grant funding– federal dollars that Montana’s drug task forces rely on to fight meth and other illicit drugs.

“Meth is a huge scourge in our state and all across this country and we need to work together to stamp it out,” Baucus said. “I’ll continue to fight and do all I can until meth is wiped out once and for all.”

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