editorial comment The real drug war? Does that mean that the rest was a fake drug war? Big bad meth! So bad it can be prescribed to children, 7 years old and above......

Washington state began facing up to its problems with methamphetamine in the 1990s. Part of the other Washington is still in denial.

An awakening by the Bush administration is overdue.

The drug problem that was once largely confined to the West has already devastated many rural parts of the Midwest. Eastern states are joining the cry, too.

Now, much of the country is seeing the effects: rapid addiction to the synthetic chemical concoction; desperate acts of crime to earn money; family disintegration, and poisoned homes, motel rooms and even park sites where the drug is cooked. As a result, Congress is pushing enough that the administration's awakening to reality might be hurried along.

Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives gave a strong bipartisan endorsement to a budget amendment adding $20 million to federal funding for curbing meth, despite White House opposition. U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, a Democrat whose southwest Washington district has long battled the drug, said the vote could represent "a tipping point" in congressional willingness to act.

With the administration intent on broadly shifting hundreds of millions of dollars from local law enforcement to anti-terrorism agencies, the victory was a minor one. But it could portend much greater congressional action in the months ahead.

U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Lake Stevens, new Rep. Dave Reichert, the Eastside Republican, Sen. Maria Cantwell and other Washington state members of Congress have worked together on the issue. They're gaining allies, as reflected in the growing membership of Congressional Caucus to Fight and Control Methamphetamine.

Last week, local law enforcement officials from much of the country ranked methamphetamine as the most serious drug problem they face. A survey by the National Association of Counties showed 58 percent of 500 law enforcement agencies ranked methamphetamine as their biggest challenge. No other drug was even close. In the Northwest, 75 percent named methamphetamine as the worst.

Larsen, who succeeded Baird as a co-chairman of the congressional meth caucus, expressed disappointment that a key White House official reacted by saying there was a problem but not an epidemic. But the momentum for addressing meth has always come from the ground up, from those who have seen the effects.

Last month, Reichert, with his experience in the King County Sheriff's Office, argued face to face with a powerful congressional Republican during a floor fight to restore funding to help police around the country. Reichert lost. A day later, however, Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., came back and said he had found a way to protect some of the police funding the administration wanted to cut.

Larsen said a bipartisan group of members is exploring the possibility of comprehensive legislation. The aim would be to support local agencies, push international efforts to control the ingredients and widen controls on sales of legal meth ingredients already adopted by Washington and some other states.

Congress has a vital role to play. Republicans and Democrats must push the White House to join the drug war, the real one against methamphetamine that is raging from Miami to Seattle.

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