BILLS CRACK DOWN ON METH

In one year alone, Alabama law enforcement officials have busted hundreds
of methamphetamine labs, and their job could get a lot easier if tougher
laws are put in place, says one legislator who's leading the charge to do
just that.

Senate President Pro Tem Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, announced three bills
Wednesday that he is confident will help authorities crack down on
methamphetamine producers.

Barron said the criminal activity has become an "epidemic" in rural Alabama.

"Crystal meth is the most horrible, devastating drug that I have ever seen
in my pharmaceutical lifetime," Barron said during a news conference in the
Senate chambers Wednesday morning. "This destroys families. The end course
in most of the cases is death."

Legislation the senator is proposing would make it easier for authorities
to prosecute the drug's producers, who authorities say can spend about $50
at a local convenience store and make several grams of the highly addictive
substance.

Senate Bill 386, if passed, would require the courts to hold the
perpetrators responsible for all cleanup and forensic analysis costs, while
SB 385 would make it a felony for merchants to sell ingredients they know
will be used illegally.

Law enforcement officials in DeKalb County say their jurisdiction is among
those rural areas with steadily increasing numbers of illegal laboratories
- -- commonly known as "meth labs."

"This past year alone in DeKalb and Cherokee counties, we've busted over
127 meth labs, which is more than the entire state of New York, Virginia,
Delaware, New Jersey and four other New England states combined," said Mike
O'Dell, DeKalb County district attorney. "Methamphetamine manufacturing is
a rural phenomenon at this time."

Current state law stipulates that an individual must possess more than one
methamphetamine ingredient before such possession is deemed illegal.
Barron's third bill, SB 380, would make it illegal to possess any single
ingredient with the intent to produce the dangerous drug.

The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the measures Wednesday.
They now will go before the Senate for consideration.

"Hopefully we can turn this war around," Barron said. "Right now, we're not
winning the war, but this is a step."

Montgomery County District Attorney Ellen Brooks said the explosive growth
in rural areas has yet to hit her area.

"Montgomery County has not seen this development, possibly because we are
more urban," Brooks said Wednesday. "The surrounding counties are more
rural. If you're going to do this type of activity, you're more likely to
be secluded to avoid detection."

She applauded Barron's proposals, noting that they should bolster judicial
authorities' ability to prosecute drug crimes.

"I commend Sen. Barron for his efforts in this regard because it's not
often that we can catch folks in the act of making these drugs," Brooks
said. "It's easier and safer to be able to prosecute for possession of the
ingredients and tools rather than the actual act."

Randall "R.H." Houston, district attorney for Autauga, Elmore and Chilton
counties, said that within the last two months, his office has busted five
meth labs in Elmore County alone.

"We're all the time chasing the meth dealers and the meth makers," Houston
said. "They are springing up all over the place. It's really quite scary."