LEGISLATORS, LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES FOCUS ON COMBATING METHAMPHETAMINE

With the addictive stimulant methaphetamine now the overwhelming focus of
drug investigations in Minnesota, legislators and law enforcement officials
called Friday for a wide-ranging new law to counter a growing epidemic that
they said threatens children, public health and the environment.

"Meth is already a serious problem, and now this scourge has hit the Twin
Cities," Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont, said at a State Capitol news
conference. "We are going to make it a lot harder for anyone to get their
hands on the products and equipment necessary to make this dangerous drug."

Rosen's bill would increase criminal penalties, restrict sales of meth
ingredients, protect children of meth manufacturers, clean up toxic meth
lab sites and educate the public about the drug's dangers. Her announcement
came four days after DFL legislators renewed their push for a similar bill
that passed the DFL-led Senate this year but not the GOP-controlled House.
Rosen said she hopes for a bipartisan effort next year.

She said police in her southern Minnesota district recently alerted her to
a surge in thefts of pseudoephedrine, a legal sinusitis medicine used to
make meth, after Iowa put new controls on sales and storage of such
ingredients. In the last decade, police raids on clandestine meth labs in
Minnesota have increased 20-fold, and the drug's share of narcotics cases
in the state has gone from 10 percent to 90 percent, officials said.

Under Rosen's bill, sales of pseudoephedrine to adults would be limited and
would be barred for minors, and merchants would have to guard supplies of
the drug in locked cabinets, within sight of clerks, behind sales counters
or with antitheft product tags. In addition, the maximum penalty for
possession of ingredients with intent to manufacture meth would increase
from three years in prison to 15 years.

Abuse of methampetamine causes severe neurological, organ and psychological
damage, health officials say. About a third of meth labs are discovered
when they catch fire or explode, and the rest pose serious environmental
risks for future inhabitants without cleanup efforts that can cost
thousands of dollars.

Although meth is relatively simple to produce with readily available
chemicals, most of the drug found in Minnesota still is smuggled in from
Mexico and California, said Tim O'Malley, deputy superintendent of the
state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Public Safety Commissioner Rich
Stanek called Rosen's bill "the kind of comprehensive solution we
desperately need."

The DFL bill could make adults who cook meth around children subject to
child-endangerment charges.