To bring communities together in the fight against drugs and crime, U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell is touring Iowa’s cities and towns to learn more about the issue.

Boswell, a Democrat serving his first term in the House, will be in Ames for a drug and crime roundtable on Tuesday from 11 a.m. to noon.

“Spending time with law enforcement officials has taught me the distinct link drugs and crime have. Drugs often lead the drug addict to commit other crimes,” Boswell said in a press release.

Ames Police Sgt. Randy Kessel said he agrees with Boswell on the correlation between drugs and crime.

The most widely abused drug is alcohol, Kessel said.

“Eighty percent of arrests are alcohol-related. Public intoxication, assaults, harassment, domestic abuse and vandalism all stem from alcohol,” Kessel said, adding that the vandalism often occurs when people are going to or from parties.

Statistics from David Sahr, executive director of the Center for Addictions Recovery, also show that alcohol is the drug of choice.

Other drugs used by the center’s clients were marijuana at 42 percent, methamphetamine at 25 percent, cocaine at 6 percent and other at 8 percent.

Sahr said the center has served 447 clients in the past year, and of those, 79 percent have been arrested for a drug- or alcohol-related offense, and some have been arrested more than once.

Kessel said it’s good that Boswell is coming to Ames because “we need all the allegiance we can get to get the anti-drug message out.”

Even though there is a Story County DARE program, a middle and high school resource officer in Ames and a speaker’s bureau that offers assemblies, Kessel said the most effective tool is in the home.

“Schools only have the children six to eight hours a day. If parents are doing their part, then we’re only able to do so much,” Kessel said. “It’s a community problem, a society problem.”

Boswell said the problem is everywhere, and it is not limited to the illegal importation of drugs.

Methamphetamines, which can be made in homes, are dangerous to make and use.

The drug has become prevalent in the Midwest the last few years because of its accessibility.

He also said the problem extends to the family, schools and chamber of commerce, and he emphasized that all Iowans need to come together to win the “war on drugs.”

Boswell said he hopes to use the roundtable discussions to hear the special problems of each community and any possible solutions.

He said he is hoping to stimulate a very informal conversation on how to tackle the problems.

The drug and crime roundtable will be held in Room 233 of the Ames City Hall.