He says he moved back for Iowa's open spaces slower-paced life, and to be close to family. Quality government is Iowa's promise to Bruce and Carola. Welcome back to Iowa. The last part of the quality of life agenda I'll mention today is perhaps the most basic. It doesn't do any good to improve education, clean up the environment, prevent disease, and create a larger and smarter work force if our communities aren't safe.
Safe communities are one of Iowa's basic strengths.
To ensure our safe communities, we must reduce the supply and demand for illegal drugs. I remain committed to a plan we worked on last year to fight the methamphetamine epidemic by adding six new narcotics agents to the Department of Public Safety this year. These agents will make inroads in our war against methamphetamine and other drugs. We also propose increasing the staff for our state criminal laboratory to aid our prosecutors in investigations leading to convictions. Another tool in our effort should be the expansion of drug courts.