WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley today helped launch a new Senate Anti-Meth Caucus with a number of his Senate colleagues during a Capitol Hill press conference. Grassley, as Chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, has called on the National Office of Drug Control Policy to increase it’s focus on meth.

Grassley joined Sens. Jim Talent of Missouri, Conrad Burns of Montana, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Joseph Biden of Delaware as a founding member of the caucus. The members will help focus additional attention on three different areas of meth addiction; the needs of law enforcement, opportunities for treatment and prevention.

Grassley’s prepared statement from the press conference announcing the caucus follows here:

Prepared Statement of Sen. Chuck Grassley

Launch of Senate Anti-Meth Caucus

Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2005

We’re here today because the nation is waking up to a national epidemic. Methamphetamine is infiltrating communities across the country.

Unfortunately, in Iowa we had to deal very early on with the devastation that’s been caused by meth during the last decade. Last year, there were almost 1,400 meth incidents in Iowa alone. Today, this drug is raging across America.

Meth is highly addictive. It’s versatile, affordable and readily-cooked. It’s a drug that cuts a swath through income levels. It ruins individual lives and rips apart families. Child welfare officials have seen a 40-percent increase in the number of kids who’ve lost their homes because of meth. Methamphetamine seeps into workplaces. It taxes emergency rooms, drains law enforcement resources, risks public safety, wears down our foster care system, and harms the environment.

In Iowa, the response to meth has been powerful. We have community coalitions working to contain the spread and prevent new users from ever getting started. State lawmakers enacted one of the toughest statutes in the nation this year to keep pseudoephedrine — a primary ingredient in meth — out of the hands of meth makers. No federal law should undermine important state laws like this one.

Now it’s time for the federal government to do more. This Senate Caucus needs to be a loud voice for a coordinated, aggressive national effort to stop the epidemic of methamphetamine. We need to help channel federal dollars where they can most help states and all the local communities who are on the front lines working to keep schools, neighborhoods and businesses drug-free. We need to put teeth in the enforcement of drug trafficking laws. And we need to help educate Americans about the dangers of meth. Our challenge is to help keep a national focus on the methamphetamine problem.

I’m glad to help found this Caucus and look forward to working very hard with my colleagues on this important issue.