As the presidential candidates continue to search for issues that will resonate with voters, the Kerry-Edwards campaign revealed a new plan Monday to combat methamphetamine abuse Monday.

Abuse of a “superaddictive” drug like meth is a significant problem in Iowa, a state with the most meth labs per-capita in the nation. The plan’s release has sparked more debate between the two campaigns.

“John Kerry and John Edwards know that methamphetamine affects so many families around rural America,” said Carrie Giddens, spokeswoman for the Iowa Democratic Party.

The Kerry-Edwards plan to alleviate the drug problem involves spending $30 million a year for 10 years in education, treatment programs, enforcement efforts and subsidizing locks for anhydrous ammonia tanks.

The Kerry and Bush campaigns have disagreed about the money allocated for limiting the drug problem, as each side seeks to increase funding for anti-drug programs.

“George Bush’s response has been to propose a 63-percent cut in funding for police efforts,” Giddens said.

Dan Ronayne, spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, disagrees. “The president has [proposed] a $550 million increase in his fiscal year 2005 budget,” he said.

Dale Woolery, the associate director of the Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy, which handles programs to reduce drug abuse and related crime, said there is no single step that will solve the state’s meth problem, but new legislation to reduce access to meth precursor chemicals will help.

“Pseudoephedrine is only a molecule away from meth,” Woolery said. “We have a new Iowa law … that restricts packaged sales of single-ingredient pseudoephedrine products like Sudafed.”

The law limits the number of these products a customer can purchase over the counter.

A similar law that was enacted in Oklahoma has yielded positive results.

Woolery said he estimates that the number of meth labs has been cut in half in Oklahoma since the law went into effect in April.

As the state tries to combat the importation of drugs from out of state by apprehending the traffickers and confiscating the shipments, law enforcement is focusing its resources on the greater threat to public safety.

“The [meth] labs are not making a lot, but they are taxing a lot of public resources and present a huge public safety threat,” Woolery said, citing the explosions, fires and deaths that have accompanied Iowans’ efforts to make methamphetamine.

Woolery said he estimates that 80 percent of methamphetamine in Iowa comes across the border, while the other 20 percent is manufactured by in-state “meth cooks.”

Meth lab seizures have increased dramatically since 1995 when eight labs were seized in the state.

Last year, law enforcement responded to meth labs more than 1,100 times.

“It’s a numbers game, and the more labs we have, the more innocent people will be injured,” Woolery said.