Blunt unveils plan to provide $1.8 million for anti-meth task forces

Gov. Matt Blunt unveiled a plan Friday to secure $1.8 million in a supplementary budget for Missouri's anti-methamphetamine task forces.

"Meth harms the community, tears families apart and destroys individual lives," Blunt said at a news conference at the Cape Girardeau Sheriff's Department.

Securing the money will prevent the elimination of the Missouri Sheriff's Methamphetamine Relief Team, or MoSMART, a program for which federal funding was recently eliminated.

Incidents in Missouri involving methamphetamine have declined 40 percent over the past two years since Missouri passed legislation restricting sales of products containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, ingredients used in manufacturing the drug.

Still, importation of methamphetamine has picked up, and were it not for Blunt's support of MoSMART, the program would have "been found in the obituary section," said Sheriff John Jordan.

Though Sen. Kit Bond has secured about $16 million in earmark funding since 2000 for the program, the amount he's been able to secure has dwindled over that past few years, said Shana Marchio, communications director for Bond's office.

Jordan said his office applied for emergency funding to keep the program afloat and was denied just a few weeks ago.