ANTI-METH LAW OFFERS NEW TOOLS TO COMBAT DRUG

WASHINGTON -- A newly signed law gives Central Valley meth fighters some
potentially powerful new tools.

Signed by President Clinton this week as part of a larger children's health
bill, the anti-meth measure increases penalties, toughens reporting
requirements, authorizes new federal funds and targets the toxic spillover
from illegal methamphetamine labs.

"(This) will allow us to strengthen our efforts to curtail the emerging use
of the drugs methamphetamine and Ecstasy, which imperil the health and
safety of our nation's young people," Clinton said when he signed the
legislation.

Though not specifically identifying the Central Valley, the legislation
first introduced by Utah Republican Chris Cannon and his Senate colleague,
Orrin Hatch, clearly could aid the Valley.

As spelled out in The Bee's recent special report "A Madness Called Meth,"
the illegal methamphetamine trade has become one of the Valley's biggest
and most dangerous businesses.

The new law signed Tuesday, for instance, designates $15 million in fiscal
2001 funds to combat meth in regions designated as High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Areas.

Because a nine-county area spanning the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys
already has received this HIDTA designation, the area becomes eligible for
the new meth funds.

Moreover, because the new law partially targets funding based on the number
of arrests and lab seizures in given areas, the Central Valley HIDTA could
fare well. More than 2,000 California labs were busted last year, far more
than in any other state.

The actual funding decisions will be made by the Office of National Drug
Control Policy, which is part of the White House.

"We can help stop the spread of meth before more lives are devastated,"
said Cannon, whose own state had some 260 meth labs seized last year.

The new measure also provides up to $10 million for the Drug Enforcement
Administration to reimburse state and local agencies for cleaning up meth
lab sites.

California taxpayers alone are now estimated to spend about $10 million a
year on lab cleanups.

Until now, judges have had the discretion to order meth manufacturers to
reimburse the government for cleanup costs.

The new law, citing the "destruction to property and the environment" and
"how expensive it has become to clean up the wastes produced during the
manufacturing," makes such restitution mandatory.

"We've had people in California who rented out their homes or ranches to
meth producers, and the cleanup sometimes (costs) more than what the
property is worth," California Department of Justice information officer
Mike Van Winkle said Friday.

The new law follows upon 1996 legislation, partially written by California
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, that also targeted methamphetamine.

The meth measure signed by Clinton, though, also differed in some respects
from what had originally been introduced.

A provision opposed by civil libertarians on both the right and the left,
which would have made it illegal to distribute books and Internet material
on the making of meth, was taken out.