Biggest threat in meth fight, Grassley says? Concentrated versions coming from Mexico

DES MOINES - U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley says it's clear the biggest issue in the fight to curtail methamphetamine use is a highly concentrated version of the drug being brought into the country illegally across the southern border.

Grassley held a field hearing Tuesday at the Iowa State Historical Museum for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs.

Grassley and U.S. Rep. David Young discussed the issue with an all-Iowa panel featuring officials from government, law enforcement and addiction treatment.

'We got absolute proof that the major problem is the high quality of the meth that's coming in from Mexico,” Grassley said.

Lt. Corbin Payne, who supervises the Waterloo Police Department's Tri-County Drug Enforcement Task Force, said that his department's investigations have revealed meth 'is particularly coming over our borders.” He said the department has confiscated roughly 70 pounds of meth, which has a street value of roughly $4 million.

Payne said meth trafficking has complicated a problem after Iowa in recent years made gains reducing the number of homemade meth labs.

To Grassley, that means the U.S. must act to stop meth from getting across the border.

'We have to explore several different areas. One that would help is if we could stop the meth from crossing the border in the first place,” Grassley said. 'I think you have to do it the same way as you deal with the undocumented worker program: you have to secure the border.”

Other panel members focused on the treatment and rehabilitation of meth users.

Jay Hansen, executive director of the non-profit Prairie Ridge Integrated Behavioral Healthcare in Mason City, described addiction as a brain disease and talked about the chemical imbalance in the brain that occurs during meth use.

He said those who hope to get rehabilitated must have 'people in their life that can support them.”

Denise Moore is one such rehabilitated meth user. A member of Tuesday's panel, Moore now works with a program that pairs families with meth addicts with a person like Moore, who has been through the legal and rehabilitation process.

Moore, a mother of seven who temporarily lost custody of her children due to her meth-related legal entanglements, said government should focus on programs that focus on recovery and 'allow families to heal as a unit.”

'I am proof that parents with meth addiction can recover,” Moore said. 'Unfortunately, these outcomes and interventions are the exception, not the rule.”