Surrounded on all sides by methamphetamine-plagued states and positioned in the path of the drug's eastward spread, Wisconsin stands on the brink of a meth epidemic.
The I-94 pipeline from Minneapolis, Minn. may bind the dairy state to a drug problem more insidious than cocaine. As neighboring states fell to meth crises throughout the 1990s, Wisconsin generally remained unaffected. Today, a meth crisis rages in the northwest regions of the state and threatens Wisconsin's two metropolitan areas: Milwaukee and Madison.
'Within two to three years the epidemic will reach the levels in Madison as it has in northwestern Wisconsin,' said Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, Criminal Justice and Homeland Security committee chair during testimony about the meth crisis last year.
Last Thursday, Gov. Jim Doyle raised the bar in the combat against meth by extending the definition of child abuse to production or abuse of meth in the presence of minors. Doyle also issued a $250,000 grant to 12 counties and an American Indian tribe to fund meth prevention and treatment programs. However, this only begins to address an escalating meth problem.
Anti-meth efforts pioneered by U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl in 1990 initially slowed the drug's entry into Wisconsin, but recent statewide trends, including a 450-percent increase in criminal meth cases between 2000 and 2005, indicate a need for new governmental initiatives.
Last year, a coalition of state legislators successfully pushed legislation to restrict and track the sales of medications that contain meth's essential ingredient, pseudoephedrine. By hampering mass production of meth in Wisconsin, the law may reduce meth's environmental impact: For every pound of meth produced, six pounds of toxic waste pollute the environment.
However, the majority of meth comes from Mexico via Minneapolis, the 'midwest meth mecca.' The law limiting pseudoephedrine sales may benefit Wisconsin's environment, but does not account for the burden local governments bear to fund law enforcement, imprisonment and treatment for meth-related incidents.
'It's a huge financial strain,' Suder said. 'Statewide resources are being siphoned off to fight it.'
The St. Croix County prison prison runs a $4 million tab in cell space alone for meth-related incarcerations. This sum does not account for the thousands of dollars required to rehabilitate even one individual. A long-term solution to the meth crisis must come from preventative initiatives, not handcuffs. During testimony at the Capitol last year, St. Croix County Attorney Erik Johnson noted deference to law enforcement due to a lack of alternative, preventative approaches to the crisis.
'I'm not a great believer in imprisoning your problem,' he said. 'It's not an ideal situation. It's costly, but it's something we know that works.'
Statistics link meth to significant increases in domestic abuse, child abuse and neglect, and sexual abuse and assault, all of which contribute to rising imprisonment rates. Doyle's latest meth initiatives will heal some of these damages, but the prisons will overflow and money will run dry before the problem is effectively controlled.
If legislators hope to prevent the drug from gaining momentum, they must invest heavily in multi-faceted anti-meth initiatives. These initiatives should seek to prevent and amend the environmental, governmental, social and personal costs of meth abuse.
'We lost the war with crack because we didn't pay enough attention,' said Rep. Kitty Rhoades, R-Hudson, 'We didn't believe it could be as bad as it was; we now know that this is worse.'
If methamphetamine takes root in Milwaukee and Madison, the various costs of damage control will likely outweigh those of preventative efforts. The Wisconsin legislature must take swift and decisive action to prevent the looming methamphetamine war.
