PANEL APPROVES METH-LAB MEASURE

Bill Aims To Protect Producers' Children

Friday, January 24 - An effort to protect children and toughen
laws against methamphetamine producers began anew Thursday in the
Colorado legislature.

The House Judiciary Committee unanimously passed a measure that would
make manufacturing the illicit drug in the presence of a child a
felony child-abuse crime. It would be punishable by up to 12 years in
prison followed by a mandatory five years of probation.

Last year, the legislature made it a felony to make the drug or to
possess the ingredients.

But methamphetamine production is on the rise in Colorado, as are the
instances of children being found amid the pots, pans and chemicals
set up inside people's homes, said Lt. Lori Moriarty, commander of the
North Metro Drug Task Force. Moriarty said that more children are
being taken to hospitals with chemical illnesses and burns because
they were present during the manufacturing process or unknowingly
drank the ingredients.

She said many children are being recovered from meth-lab homes with
rotted teeth or none at all, the result of having ingested
methamphetamine or ingredients kept in the refrigerator in soda pop
bottles.

"Our bodies were not meant to digest Coleman fuel or lighter fluid,"
Moriarty said, urging the committee to pass House Bill 1004. "We
really need felony charges for this crime."

Pediatrician Kathryn Wells from Children's Hospital testified that
adults high on meth tend to become violent and take out their anger on
children. In addition, they sleep for days and don't eat, neglecting
their children in the process.

Another witness representing foster parents said that children removed
from meth-lab homes have been known to climb atop kitchen counters in
their foster homes to reach food for themselves, not realizing that in
a normal home adults cook the food and feed the children.

"They don't know how to use utensils. They are animalist," the witness
told the committee.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Pam Rhodes, R-Thornton, added an amendment
that would allow adults to be charged with felony child abuse as long
as there is evidence of children living on the premises where the drug
is being made, even though they are not present when a lab is raided
by law enforcement.

The bill now moves to the House Appropriations Committee. In the long
term, officials said, the bill could drive up prison costs if it
increases the amount of time a person convicted of meth-related child
abuse spends behind bars.