DAS TRY ANTITERROR LAWS FOR DRUG CASES

WINSTON-SALEM - Following the lead of Watauga County, other district
attorneys in North Carolina are considering using antiterrorism laws to
prosecute accused methamphetamine producers.

Watauga County District Attorney Jerry Wilson last week charged a man
accused of running a methamphetamine lab with violating state laws involving
the manufacture of nuclear or chemical weapons.

The statute, passed in November 2001, was meant to deal with terrorists and
carries a stiffer sentence than most drug laws.

"We sat down and began looking for something more that we could use as a
weapon against these people, and that's the statute we found," said Wilson,
whose county has had 24 meth labs raided this year.

Forsyth County District Attorney Tom Keith said his office's policy now is
that "we will put B1 felonies on anyone having anything to do with
methamphetamines. These things are very dangerous."

B1 felonies carry prison sentences ranging from 12 years to life.

The first person who will be prosecuted under the antiterrorism laws is
Martin Dwayne Miller, 24, of Todd.

Miller, who was arrested July 11, was charged with two counts of
manufacturing a nuclear or chemical weapon, in connection with charges
relating to methamphetamine production. Even if Miller were convicted of the
most serious drug charge against him, he might have served only six months
in prison, Wilson said.

To link the drug's production to chemical weapons, prosecutors referred to
the toxic and combustible nature of the chemicals involved in
methamphetamine production. They said police officers and firefighters who
respond to calls involving the drug risk serious injury.

Keith said the use of the antiterrorism law to stop the growth of
methamphetamine laboratories is necessary to prevent problems that have
plagued other states.

"We're not going to let them get a foothold," Keith said. "If we catch them,
we want to take their life away, put them away for as long as we can."

Several defense lawyers reacted to Wilson's decision with a mix of
skepticism and concern for the rights of the accused.

"It seems to me to be a real stretch of the imagination, that this would be
covered under the antiterrorism law," said Wallace Harrelson, Guilford
County's public defender. "It seems to me that the antiterrorism law was
designed with a specific purpose in mind, to prosecute people who are
threatening to hurt the safety of the general public."

Forsyth County public defender Pete Clary said Wilson might be overstepping
his bounds as a prosecutor.

"I think it's up to the legislature to decide whether the law is `woefully
insufficient'," Clary said. "The DA is charged with enforcing the laws on
the books, not as he wishes they were."