Series: A RIsing Blight - Day 3: The Solution - Part 3A

TIGHTER INGREDIENT CONTROLS CAN CURB METH PRODUCTION

Drug Courts Called Vital In Treating Addiction

Kentucky and Indiana lawmakers expect to consider legislation next year
that would tighten the sale of ingredients used to make meth and increase
treatment for addicts.

Central to both states' plans are bills designed to severely limit the sale
of cold and allergy drugs that contain pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient
for making methamphetamine.

The legislation in both states will be based at least in part on an
Oklahoma law that directs retailers to keep cold and allergy drugs that
contain pseudoephedrine behind counters, requires customers to sign a log
and limits how much can be bought in a month, lawmakers said.

Oklahoma pharmacies will not sell a person more than nine grams of
pseudoephedrine in a product within a 30-day period.

"If we don't control pseudoephedrine, we're never going to get our arms
around the meth problem in this state," said David James, commissioner of
the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation.

But with the Kentucky legislative session set to start Jan.4, lawmakers
said they were still discussing details and had not filed any bills.

Indiana appears to be ahead of Kentucky, having formed a task force that
recently issued an array of recommendations for legislation to be
introduced next month in the General Assembly.

Spreading Success

Officials Hope Good Results Will Have A Domino Effect

Indiana state Rep. Trent Van Haaften, D-Mount Vernon, the legislative
member of the task force, said success in his state could spur surrounding
states to react.

"If Illinois sees that it works in Indiana, that could provide an example
for both Illinois and Kentucky, and Ohio and Michigan for that matter," he
said.

Oklahoma believes its law immediately cut the number of meth labs that
needed to be dismantled, said Robert Lee, deputy inspector of the Oklahoma
State Bureau of Investigation.

In the four months before the law was enacted, from December 2003 through
March 2004, 304 meth-lab cases went to the bureau, Lee said.

That figure was a repeat from the same period a year earlier. In the four
months after the law took effect, police busted 190 labs, a 37.5percent
decrease, Lee said.

Officials with Kentucky's Office of Drug Control Policy and the attorney
general's office said legislation they intend to propose in January will be
based in part on the findings of 16 regional forums on substance abuse held
earlier this year.

In fact, the creation of the office itself, which coordinates the state's
substance-abuse policy, was a proposal quickly implemented. Since then,
state leaders have met with law-enforcement officials to develop what they
say will be Kentucky's first comprehensive plan to attack meth

The expected legislation would provide penalties for meth makers who make
the drug in the presence of children. It would seek to reconcile existing
law with a Kentucky Supreme Court ruling that questioned how many
ingredients are needed for a manufacturing charge.

Deputy Attorney General Pierce Whites said he believes the proposal will be
solid, and lawmakers who might object to parts should consider passing
other sections. "With the whole toolbox we'd be able to do more, but that's
not to say we shouldn't take what we can get," he said.

Restricting Access

Indiana Proposal Limits Purchase Of Meth Precursors

Van Ingram, director of the drug control policy office, said Kentucky
should follow Oklahoma's strategy.

"If you can prevent a crime from occurring in the first place, that's a
smarter approach than just tough penalties," Ingram said. "We're trying to
go a step further and look at other creative measures, other than arrest,
conviction and sentence."

The Indiana Methamphetamine Abuse Task Force, created by the legislature
last spring to study the issue, recommended reducing access to
pseudoephedrine, used in such over-the-counter medications as Sudafed and
Claritin-D.

(Pfizer, the maker of Sudafed, recently said it is introducing a new
version - Sudafed PE - that can't be used to make meth.)

Van Haaften said a key task force recommendation is to legislate that only
licensed pharmacists or technicians can sell products that contain
pseudoephedrine in tablet or caplet form.

The bill would exempt liquid forms of pseudoephedrine such as "gel caps" or
syrups because they are not used to make meth.

Indiana also wants to create a Methamphetamine Watch Program based on one
in Kansas, which teams retailers, law-enforcement and state health and
environmental officials.

Merchants, under the program, would place potential meth ingredients where
they can be easily monitored against theft.

In addition to the drug and allergy medications, meth-making ingredients or
equipment can include coffee filters, lithium batteries, acetone, rubbing
alcohol, drain cleaner, matchbooks, starter fluid, rock salt and assorted
other household items.

Some stores in hard-hit Vigo County have begun their own watch program,
said Sheriff John Marvel.

One hardware store keeps starting fluid behind the counter and will not
sell more than two cans at a time, he said. In addition, he said, the local
Wal-Mart has put the affected drugs behind the counter.

The task force also has called for the use of "mandatory, treatment-based
sentencing programs," such as what drug courts offer.

The task force called for the creation of more drug courts, which use
treatment and close supervision to help offenders get clean. Offenders who
follow drug court rules stay out of jail and ultimately have their criminal
charges dismissed if they graduate after one to three years.

Vigo County's Drug Court, begun in 1996, is the second-oldest in the state
and has graduated more than 216 people. Superior Court Judge Barbara
Brugnaux, who oversees the program, said about 37 graduates, or 17percent,
have since been arrested for felonies.