WASHINGTON - Methamphetamine has supplanted cocaine as the top drug-related law enforcement problem, according to a survey released Tuesday of some 500 local officials across the United States.
Fifty-eight percent of police, sheriff's department and related agencies polled across 45 US states said that methamphetamine was their top drug problem.
Cocaine came in second place at 19 percent, followed by marijuana at 17 percent and heroin at three percent.
The survey conducted by the National Association of Counties (NACO), found that the problem was particularly pronounced in the western United States: Some 76 percent of law enforcement agencies in the US Southwest said that meth was their biggest drug problem, as did 75 percent in the Pacific Northwest states.
Local officials are calling on the George W. Bush administration to increase funding to law enforcment and other agencies trying to stem its spread.
"We'd like to call on the administration to put the same kind of emphasis on meth abuse as they have on marijuana," said Larry Naake, the NACO's executive director.
"We think that there is now an epidemic that needs to get their attention because it's just as serious, if not more serious" than other forms of drug abuse, he said.
07/05/2005 16:54 GMT