STATE TAKES ACTION ON METH PROBLEM

Condemned Home Is Backdrop For The Get-Tougher Stance

Republican state senators used the home as a backdrop Tuesday to tout five
bills being put forth to the Oregon Legislature that would help the state
and local communities fight Oregon's latest drug scourge.

The bills would create mandatory minimum sentences for meth dealers, makers
and users; toughen penalties for possession of chemicals used to make meth;
prohibit the sale of meth-making chemicals to those younger than 18; expand
sentencing guidelines; and make money available for counties to prosecute
and jail more offenders.

"People don't realize how big this drug problem is in Oregon," said Sen.
Jackie Winters, R-Salem.

Winters said she has been pushing for more laws regulating meth since 1999,
but at the time, her colleagues considered meth an Interstate 5 corridor
problem, not a community drug problem.

"It's as though we have to get to the point of something being like the
bubonic plague before something gets done," Winters said.

The Republicans probably will have the support of Democratic Gov. Ted
Kulongoski, who convened a state task force in early 2004 to address the
drug problem.

In November, the Oregon Pharmacy Board complied with Kulongoski's request
for a six-month restriction on the sale of cold medicines that contain a
key ingredients to make meth -- pseudoephedrine and ephedrine -- by moving
the products behind the counter.

Fighting meth also was mentioned as one of the governor's top priorities
during his state of the state address.

Residents of the Glendale Avenue neighborhood listened carefully as the
lawmakers laid out their plans.

"What are you going to do about treatment for meth users?" asked Carol
Royal, a Middle Grove Neighborhood Association member.

Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, told her that "breaking the cycle of the
meth problem has to come before treatment."

Meanwhile, Royal and others in her neighborhood have been attacking the
meth problem head on, with or without law enforcement's support.

When neighbors suspected another drug house across the street from the
condemned home, she contacted the home owners.

An eviction notice was served at the home the next day, she said. It took
the homeowners three months to get the renters out, but they did it.

Winters said the bills would help communities such as Salem, which has
taken the lead in fighting meth with its No Meth-- Not in My Neighborhood
program.

"We need to make sure they all have support from the state," Winters said.
"We need to get the message out that we're not open for business in Oregon."