AYRES: LET'S LOOK AT METH REGISTRY

Indianapolis: Those With Convictions Linked To Drug Would Be Tracked Online

INDIANAPOLIS -- A Northwest Indiana legislator wants officials to
consider creating an Internet registry to track those convicted of
dealing or manufacturing methamphetamine, an addictive stimulant
that's become a scourge of many rural communities.

All 50 states and the federal government employ similar online
databases to monitor the movement of paroled sex offenders. State
Rep. Ralph Ayres, R-Chesterton, on Monday announced the legislative
study committee he chairs will explore whether Indiana should join
Illinois and three other states that do the same for meth convicts.
"The drug's obviously deadly, and it's cheap," Ayres said.

One potentially explosive process of cooking meth combines common
household items, including pseuodoephedrine cold tablets -- an
ingredient that state lawmakers recently moved behind pharmacy
counters -- with anhydrous ammonia, a highly combustible fertilizer.
Police have found meth labs everywhere from farm fields to car trunks.

"You're putting children at risk, you're putting neighborhoods at
risk and you're putting society at risk," Ayres said.

The clandestine manufacturing operations, thus far, have clustered in
rural downstate counties, with fewer than a dozen meth lab seizures
recorded in Lake and Porter counties since the late 1990s, when the
drug began to attract Midwest attention.

Police throughout Indiana seized 547 meth labs in the first seven
months of this year, a roughly 20 percent drop from the record busts
seen the two previous years.

The study committee will meet for the first time next week, and its
final recommendation could prompt legislation next year.