HOUSE PASSES TOUGHER PENALTIES FOR METH LABS

LITTLE ROCK -- Makers of methamphetamine would be singled out for
stiffer punishments under House-passed legislation that is intended to
discourage Arkansas' fastest growing illegal drug industry. "Arkansas
is number two in the nation for crystal meth," said sponsoring Rep.
Bobby Lee Trammell, D-Jonesboro. "It's bad enough to say we're on the
bottom in education, on the bottom in bad roads.

But it hurts me down deep inside to say we're practically on the top
in the number of crystal methamphetamine labs," Trammell said.
Representatives, who gave Trammel a standing ovation, passed the
legislation on a 92-1 vote after a string of speeches decrying the
drug problem.

The legislation now goes to the Senate. Rep. Sandra Rodgers, D-Hope,
the lone dissenter, said crack cocaine was a bigger problem in her
area. She added that overzealous police could wrongly conclude that
someone was building a meth lab when in fact they were using the
ingredients for legal reasons. Many of the ingredients to make
methamphetamine can be bought at Wal-Mart at farm supply stores.

A $300
investment can make $3,500 worth of methamphetamine, Trammell said, and a
home meth lab could produce up to $50,000 worth of the drug in one week.
Trammell said methamphetamine dealers are hooking children on the drug,
causing "young boys to start stealing" and girls "to go out selling their
bodies just to get another hit." Manufacturing, delivering or possessing
methamphetamine with intent to distribute it now is a felony, with
punishment based on how much of the drug was in the person's possession.
Sentences can range from 10-40 years in prison and up to a $25,000 fine to
15-40 years in prison and up to a $50,000 fine. Trammell's bill would
impose a mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $50,000 for
first-time offenders who use or possess paraphernalia to make
methamphetamine. A second offense would warrant 25 years without parole
and a fine of $100,000. A third offense would be punished by a mandatory
life sentence without parole. Legislators acknowledged that it was unusual
to deny parole on drug charges, but said the spread of meth labs was a good
reason to break from the norm. "Drastic and despicable actions require
drastic responses," said Rep. Mark Smith, R-El Dorado. According to
estimates from the state Sentencing Commission, the longer prison sentences
would require construction of up to 1,490 prison beds within an 18-year
period. Over that time, the cost of housing the methamphetamine convicts
would increase by about $20 million. Last year, the federal government
spent nearly $1.2 million in Arkansas for hazardous-waste cleanup of meth
labs, according to figures from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.