TOUGHER METH LAWS WILL HELP SOLVE ILLS THAT COME WITH DRUG

Attorney General Roy Cooper has been pushing for stronger laws to fight the
epidemic of methamphetamine use in North Carolina. With four new laws out of
committee on Tuesday and now on the way to the Legislature, law enforcement
may now have the tools Cooper has been hoping for.

Methamphetamine, also known as "crank" or simply "meth," is dangerous
in many ways. From production - one pound of meth can result in 5 to 6
pounds of toxic waste, and meth lab explosions are becoming more and
more common - to its highly addictive end use, methamphetamine has
brought a whole new set of problems to society and law enforcement,
and rural law enforcement in particular.

Consider that police in little Watauga County, population 44,000,
uncovered 34 labs in 2003, while Buncombe County, with a population of
about 215,000, had 12. Perhaps even more alarming is the spread of
meth - in 1999, only nine meth labs were investigated in North Carolina.

The new measures are welcomed, because according to Cooper, "The
penalties for manufacturing very seldom result in any time behind
bars." Sheriffs have been complaining that these meth "cooks" are
".back on the streets before the paperwork is done."

The laws approved by committee Tuesday would:

n Upgrade the severity of the felony charge for making meth,
increasing the maximum prison time from 25 to 49 months.

n Add meth to a list of drugs for which a dealer can be charged with
second-degree murder if a user dies from overdose.

n Increase penalties for having chemicals used to make meth, if the
intent in having them is to manufacture the drug.

n Allow a judge to give a harsher sentence to someone who made the
drug with children in the home.

This last point is particularly important, as Van Shaw Jr. with the
SBI notes, "Most kids removed from homes with meth labs are having
upper respiratory problems, chemically induced pneumonia, those type
of things.''

Cooper's office also wants the Legislature to add 42 new positions
within the State Bureau of Investigation starting next year to combat
the meth problem.

Any worries that the new laws could dramatically add to N.C.'s prison
overpopulation problem are mostly unfounded, as legislative staff
members estimate that the increase in penalties would result in 67
additional prisoners by 2008 at a cost of $1.6 million, including new
prison workers.

Officials could now have laws with enough teeth to put offenders away
for longer periods of time without resorting to using facets of new
terrorism laws to gain longer sentences. While one could argue that
this type of drug manufacture is dangerous and does indeed terrorize
communities, using the "terror" label and laws opens up a whole new
can of worms and should be avoided.

For the law-abiding citizens of WNC, the new laws would be a blessing.
When a methamphetamine maker in Watauga County is arrested, Sheriff
Mark Shook sees crime in the immediate area plummet. "With one
(methamphetamine) cook, we would go from having domestic (disputes)
every night or break-ins every night in that area," Shook said. "When
he was in (jail), we had none."

We hope our legislators will pass this series of laws on to the
governor and grant Cooper his wish - a wish that will make North
Carolina a safer and better place to live.