Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, has acquired $3.5 million to use in the prevention of meth production in Iowa, which will go to local law enforcement, job training and strengthening Iowa’s juvenile courts.

“Congressman Boswell has always been interested in the growing problem of meth use and production,” said Susan McAvoy, spokeswoman for the congressman’s office in Washington D.C.

“Obviously, he understands what a significant problem this is in Iowa,” McAvoy said.

Boswell, who announced the funding Nov. 9, is one of the founding co-chairmen of the Congressional Caucus to Fight and Control Methamphetamine, she said, more commonly known as the Meth Caucus.

The Iowa Governor’s Office of Gun Control Policy reports annually to the Legislature and the governor on all controlled substances. Marvin Van Haaften, director of the Office of Gun Control Policy, said the Code of Iowa states the office is in charge of “coordinating and monitoring all substance abuse, prevention, treatment and enforcement.”

The Office of Gun Control Policy reported that in 2004, Iowa was the fourth state in the nation with the highest amount of people who were treated for meth addiction.

“Just looking at meth labs in 2004, we were No. 2 in the nation with a total of 1,472 labs,” Van Haaften said.

Iowa was second only to the state of Missouri in 2004 in relation to meth production.

Van Haaften said meth has a very destructive nature that “cannot be compared to any other drug.”

It increases aggressiveness in people and causes paranoia, which leads to many meth-related disturbances, he said.

Currently, 15.8 percent of people in treatment in Iowa say they are primarily addicted to meth, he said, and in 2004, 39 percent of all new male prisoners and 47 percent of the new female prisoners in the state were meth users. These are indicators of the large problem that Iowa faces with meth production, he said.

“[The funding] will be a very positive thing. At the national level, these kind of anti-drug law enforcement groups have been cut, but we have too big a problem to ignore it,” Van Haaften said.

In May, the Iowa Legislature passed tougher regulations for the purchase of pseudoephedrine, needed to produce methamphetamine. Since then, meth labs have reduced by 80 percent, as of October, Van Haaften said.

“That speaks to the effectiveness of this law,” he said.

Barbara Gay, director of the Iowa Substance Abuse Information Center, said methamphetamine causes extreme weight loss; skin and dental problems; paranoia; hyperactivity; aggressiveness and sleep depravation not uncommon to other stimulant drugs.

“It changes how people act, so it causes problems in their relationships,” Gay said.

She also said the drug affects people on a very personal level. It affects the relationships they have with family members and friends and their work life as well.

The funding will go to many different state government agencies, including the Methamphetamine Clandestine Lab Task Force, the Community Based Juvenile Intervention Project, which will strengthen juvenile court partnerships with schools and improve juvenile drug courts, and the John and Mary Pappajohn Higher Education Center, which trains students to enter the workforce.