In a move that to say the least is filled with irony, The Office of National Drug Control Policy, which is located in the White House, announced yesterday that real meth lab progress is being made in light of pressure brought by state law enforcement on national drugstore chains to limit access to the ingredients used to make this horribly addictive drug.  (The A.P. reports that data shows, for example, that workers testing positive for meth has dropped 31% over the first five months of this year.

State AG's and local law enforcement have been the ones on the front lines battling the drug stores - like Rite Aide and Wal Mart - and in state after state have succeeded in getting their state legislature's to do the right thing.  NAAG has held conferences that reached across partisan lines and the job is getting done even as the White House, no doubt under the sway of the chain stores, did nothing other than propose budget cuts to state and local law enforcement. 

This election year, the chains will do their utmost to punish those AG who did the right thing.

'Twas ever thus.

The U.S. Supreme Court (sort of) decided this terms major environmental case when it interpreted (sort of) the Clean Water Act which, as any student of the environment knows, is important on the state level to both offices of state attorneys general and their client agencies.  The case is far better analyzed in other forums as the usual four dissenters (See: Bush v. Gore) wanted to leave well enough alone while the rest wanted some sort of change and the ever irrepressible Justice Scalia wrote a decision that, in the words of the New York Times, "would have stripped protection from many areas that federal regulators have treated as wetlands under the 1972 law."  In other words, Justice Scalia figures that we just have way too much protection of wetlands and, after all, we have to keep those cement factories operating.

Justice Kennedy therefore wrote for the Court - and therefore for all of us - by saying that this is an issue that will have to be worked out one case at a time based.  His decision shows that he was significantly influenced by the amicus brief filed by state AG's in support of federal regulation.

The most remarkable thing about this decision is that the environmentalists are relieved.