OFFICERS - NEW MEDICINE LAW NOT A CURE-ALL

A new law that restricts the sale of certain cold medicines is getting
credit for a decrease in methamphetamine labs across North Carolina,
but it's not doing much to stifle law enforcement concerns about the
drug.

One law alone won't solve the problem, they say - officials must still
educate the public about the drug's dangers, help addicts and fight
traffickers.

"There are still meth labs in McDowell County. People are just doing a
better job of hiding them," said Lt. Jackie Turner Jr., who heads up
McDowell County's drug enforcement unit.

"The law has helped some, but what's had a bigger impact here is the
number of people (about 70) we've sent to federal prison. Most of
those were users and manufacturers, not sellers."

The law, which took effect in January, limits the sale of drugs that
contain pseudoephedrine, a decongestant that is a primary ingredient
of methamphetamine.

The State Bureau of Investigation counted 139 seizures of meth labs
from January to June of this year, compared to 207 during the same
period last year.

McDowell, the state's leader in meth lab busts the past two years, has
seen 22 labs thus far in 2006.

That's about half the number for the same time period last
year.

Others laws have helped, such as mandatory prison time for meth
manufacturers and punishments for those who make the drug around
children, but Attorney General Roy Cooper said the cold drug law
deserves major credit.

"It makes sense that if you keep the main ingredient out of the hands
of criminals, you'll have fewer of these dangerous labs," Cooper said.

Turner stated that, since the volume of meth labs is decreasing a bit,
local detectives are going to start focusing some of their attention
on traffickers.