JEFFERSON CITY -- Proactive legislation sponsored and advanced by Sen. John Cauthorn, R-Mexico, creating a special team to battle methamphetamine production and distribution operations overwhelmingly won first-round approval in the Missouri Senate today, April 15. The action brings Cauthorn's innovative proposal an important step closer to realization.

"The illegal manufacture and abuse of methamphetamine are clear and present threats to the public's safety and welfare," Cauthorn said. "In Missouri, we've made headway in curbing this deeply-rooted problem, but far more needs to be done. This legislation will provide additional front-line resources in the war to eradicate the destructive scourge of meth."

Cauthorn's proposal, Senate Bill 39, brings together a group of five top-level sheriff's to comprise the Missouri Sheriff's Methamphetamine Relief Team (MoSMART). MoSMART members will work to coordinate meth eradication efforts and review grant applications for programs and projects advancing the mission. MoSMART's anti-methamphetamine funding priorities are:

• Sheriffs participating in coordinated multi-jurisdictional task forces that are applying for funding.

• Sheriffs whose counties are designated as High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) counties, but haven't received HIDTA or similar program funding.

• Sheriffs without HIDTA designations or task forces, whose applications justify the need for MoSMART funds to eliminate methamphetamine labs.

Cauthorn first brought his drug war legislation, modeled after a federal program spearheaded in Congress by Senator Kit Bond, to the Missouri Senate floor last year. Sen. Bond made a special trip to the State Capitol during preliminary hearings to personally speak on the merits of Cauthorn's crime bill, testifying that, "the measure John is sponsoring would really make a difference in Missouri's war on drugs."

Cauthorn said Sen. Bond's comments have since been echoed by Missourians hailing from all backgrounds throughout the state, spurring him to redouble his efforts advancing his bill during this year's legislative session.

"There were some vague, groundless concerns about cost the first time around," Cauthorn said. "But something like this doesn't cost it pays back any initial expense ten times over in added safety and protection. It's the Legislature's choice pay a dollar today, or a thousand tomorrow. And of course, there is no price we can ever pay to bring back those we lose to meth."

A final Senate vote is required to send Cauthorn's meth eradication bill to the House. House passage sends the bill to the governor's desk.

"The Senate has voiced strong support for this legislation and I see it traveling across the rotunda and receiving the same rational support in short order," Cauthorn said. "This is a way to fight and beat the problem at the root, rather than being pushed out on a limb and left merely to react to the enormously devastating consequences of meth abuse."