Mark Kennedy: “on February 16, while police officers representing law enforcement organizations with over 100,000 members from every…”

“on February 16, while police officers representing law enforcement organizations with over 100,000 members from every congressional district in the country were on Capitol Hill lobbying to save Byrne-JAG formula grants, police officers just outside the town of Monticello in my district in Minnesota were proving why the shortsighted elimination of the Byrne-JAG program must be rejected. During a mid-afternoon traffic stop involving several individuals from Washington State in a vehicle likely stolen in California, a Minnesota State trooper noticed the smell of meth coming from a car. After a brief search of the car with a trained drug dog, an elaborate trunk-latch device wired to the car's air conditioning knob was discovered and eight sealed packages and one large ziploc bag of meth were located in the car's passenger-side air bag compartment. In all, more than 11.5 pounds of meth worth over $1 million was taken off our streets, along with several traffickers who profit from dealing this poison. Mr. Speaker, 11.5 pounds of meth is the equivalent of over 45,000 hits. One hit of meth is enough to form an addiction more difficult to break than even heroin. Mr. Speaker, I commend the police officers who made this bust and kept this staggering amount of meth out of the community in my district and likely those of many of my colleagues. However, Mr. Speaker, imagine how much meth they were not able to catch because of the devastating cuts to the Byrne-JAG program.…”