Media Advisory: McKenna visits NE Washington for anti-meth school visits and funding announcement

OLYMPIA - Attorney General Rob McKenna will visit Spokane and Pend Oreille counties to present his “Operation: Allied Against Meth” program to area high schools and to discuss the state’s new meth law, including funding for new multi-jurisdictional meth task forces in Northeast Washington.

Public Schedule:

The attorney general will also be available between 10:15 and 11 a.m. to discuss the 2006 anti-meth legislation approved this session and signed into law.

“According to US Newswire, meth users in Spokane committed 70 percent of the city's burglaries, 80 percent of vehicle thefts and 95 percent of credit card fraud,” McKenna said. “It’s critical that we treat this powerful addiction, crack down on those who traffic in this drug, and teach our children and young adults not to experiment with meth, not even once.”

McKenna’s “Operation: Against Meth” law, Senate Bill 6239, outlines strategies in public education, clean-up, governance and sentencing to reduce the number of people addicted to meth and make sentencing and incarceration more effective for meth addicts.

It also directs $1.575 million in funding each year through 2010 to be split across three new multi-jurisdictional pilot enforcement areas in:

• Stevens, Ferry, Pend Oreille, and Lincoln counties;
• Pacific, Wahkiakum, Lewis, Grays Harbor and Cowlitz counties; and
• Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield, and Asotin counties.

Existing multi-jurisdictional drug task forces and local government drug prosecutors will receive a minimum of $4 million in state and federal funding for the fight. In 2005, McKenna added two meth prosecutors to his office’s Criminal Justice division to help local prosecutors keep up with their caseloads.

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To schedule interviews, contact Janelle Guthrie, AG Media Relations Director, (360) 584-3046.