Governor signs meth bills in Eugene.

Byline: Bill Bishop The Register-Guard

As a stage for signing into law the state's tough new control on the main ingredient for making methamphetamine, Gov. Ted Kulongoski could hardly have chosen a better place than the Relief Nursery in Eugene.

In the past year, all of the more than 300 parents in treatment at the nursery's drug and alcohol recovery program have cited meth as their drug of choice, nursery officials said.

Kulongoski appointed a task force 18 months ago to hammer out what emerged as a strongly bipartisan package of four anti-meth bills.

In signing them on Tuesday, he focused his remarks on the sweeping scope of meth's cost to all citizens in the state - from identity theft, burglary and violence to law enforcement, prisons and cleaning up meth labs.

But he said the impact of meth on children is at the heart of the state's determination to crush the meth epidemic.

"Meth, as you all know, is a drug that destroys families. Meth has robbed children and families of happiness," he said. "Limiting the availability of pseudoephedrine and providing tough long-term treatment, there is hope for these kids to get their families back."

The meth initiative includes bills that toughen penalties for meth crimes, boost funding for enforcement, make pseudoephedrine available only by prescription and allocate more money for drug court treatment programs.

Lane County Circuit Judge Darryl Larson, who served on Kulongoski's meth task force and presides over the local drug court, said studies show that drug courts' intensive long-term treatment with close supervision and quick reaction to relapse is a powerful and relatively inexpensive approach to addiction recovery.

Drug court participants are required to hold a job or get education to change their lifestyle and become productive citizens, Larson said. The new funding will expand the state's 37 drug courts and allow new ones to open, he said.

"We help one person at a time. Most of these people are connected to families," Larson said.

While the new prescription law may inconvenience Oregonians who need cold medicine, Kulongoski said the pharmaceutical industry already is marketing effective new non-prescription drugs that don't contain pseudoephedrine.

But he said the state's new meth laws are just a first step.

"We all have a role to play to fight the meth epidemic in our state," he said. "For some, that means developing new ways to prevent meth use, and for others, that means finding an alternative cold remedy. The bills I signed today are just one more step in that fight."

He urged Oregonians to insist that Congress enact the same approach to combat meth by restricting pseudoephedrine, focusing enforcement on meth makers and funding prevention and treatment efforts.

"All of us have to understand the cost to all of us," the governor said. "The federal government has to step up on this. I think it's a national crisis."