Federal cuts in police funding have some worried that gains in anti-meth enforcement will be lost

Rural areas know better than most what methamphetamine can do to a community, but law- enforcement officials and legislatures across the country have targeted the drug and started making progress. Federal cuts in police funding could make those efforts harder and perhaps reverse the tide, reports Kirsten Scharnberg of The Chicago Tribune.

"In Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and Nebraska, the story is the same," Scharnberg writes. "Just as statistics show that anti-meth task forces may be beginning to gain an upper hand on those who manufacture, deal and use the highly addictive and destructive drug, the source of the majority of these states' drug-enforcement funding is slated to disappear overnight."

The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant had been the prime source of funding for drug enforcement in nearly every state, but the Bush administration has proposed a $170 million from the program. State legislatures are scrambling to find replacement funds, and officials paint a grim picture of what could happen if those efforts fail.

"Without the work of our task forces, Missouri could find itself in the position where everything that's been done in the last 5 to 10 years is virtually undone," Capt. Tim Forney, the operating chief for the Northeast Missouri Narcotics Task Force, told Scharnberg. (Read more)