METH-RELATED PRISON TIME DECREASING

Fewer people are going to prison for methamphetamine-related crimes,
and Oklahomans could save millions, a state research agency
representative said Wednesday.

About 50 people were sentenced each month for meth crimes before a
state law restricting stores' sales of pseudoephedrine tablets was
enacted in April 2004.

But now only about 26 people are sentenced for the same crimes,
according to information the Oklahoma Criminal Justice Resource Center
released.

Knowing exactly what has caused the drop is impossible, but the
decrease starts a few months after the new law was enacted, said K.C.
Moon, director of the Oklahoma Criminal Justice Resource Center.

"That's what law enforcement was saying was going to happen: we can
actually eliminate a crime from happening," Moon said.

Resource center data includes several meth-related crimes:
manufacturing or possession of a controlled dangerous substance,
possession of a precursor substance and possession with intent to
manufacture.

Prisoner numbers increase Fewer meth offenders are entering the
corrections system, but the overall prison population continues to
climb.

"If it's not meth crimes, it's going to be some other crimes," said
Jerry Massie, spokesman for the state Corrections Department. "Until
you see significant drops in our overall population, then you're not
going to see significant savings."

About 23,000 men and women are in Corrections Department custody. The
population has grown by about 600 prisoners since the bill was
enacted, and the number is expected to grow by about 1,300 more in the
next two years.

"The population still rises," Massie said.

Arrests drop The past year, the number of meth-lab seizures in
Oklahoma has dropped from about 120 a month to fewer than 25, said
Mark Woodward, spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and
Dangerous Drugs.

Woodward said the number of meth arrests will continue to drop because
surrounding states are adopting similar laws and officials are
creating an electronic database of pseudoephedrine purchases.

Pittsburg County Undersheriff Richard Sexton said law officers are
seeing fewer labs, but the number of meth-related arrests in his
county has remained stable.

"The drug manufacturing is definitely on a decline due to the bill,"
said Sexton, who has worked for the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration. "But I don't believe the use of methamphetamine has
declined."