DANIELS MOUNTS METH ASSAULT

Meetings between officials with four Hoosier counties hit hardest by
methamphetamine abuse -- including Jackson -- and Gov. Mitch Daniels
continue to pay dividends.

"We've had three meetings with him (Daniels) on this," Sheriff Jerry
Hounshel said this morning, a day after Daniels announced two new
initiatives to combat methamphetamine abuse around the state.

The first is designed to free up a backlog of evidence from such cases
sitting at state police laboratories, and the second develops procedures
for removing and protecting children exposed to meth production.

Hounshel, who attended Daniels' Statehouse news conference Tuesday, said
those efforts coupled with the opening of a 220-bed rehabilitation center
for convicted meth users in Miami County earlier this week are steps in the
right direction. Hounshel also attended an open house at the center Monday
and said he met a prisoner from Seymour who was sentenced in Jennings County.

"He was excited about this chance," Hounshel said.

Overall, Hounshel said Daniels has moved quickly to try to combat the
problem and has done so with little expense to anyone.

"At least we're getting somewhere," Hounshel said. "We've felt like we were
sitting around here doing nothing. Now it seems like we're getting things
done to try to turn this around."

Tuesday, Daniels also called on lawmakers to pass legislation that would
make buying certain meth ingredients more difficult.

"Lives are at stake. Children's lives are at stake," Daniels said. "In that
situation, you don't compromise."

Daniels said the state will begin a pilot program with several colleges and
universities designed to ease a backlog of drug cases at state police
laboratories in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Lowell and Evansville, The
Associated Press reported. Students will serve as interns at the labs and
handle basic drug cases to free state police to focus their attention on
meth cases.

Hounshel said the backlog of cases at state laboratories has not slowed any
investigations in Jackson County, however.

"We just keep doing our jobs and sending it up there," he said. "It creates
a backlog for our court and it's hard on the prosecutor to go to court and
try a case without it (lab results).

The governor said the state also will work to establish a database that
enables prosecutors to notify the labs when a case is no longer going to
trial, freeing up workers to focus on relevant cases.

Daniels also announced that Jim Payne, director of the Department of Child
Services, will begin developing procedures for removing and protecting
children exposed to meth production, the AP said.

Payne said caseloads involving children are often directly related to meth,
but the state has no coordinated way to care for those children.

He said some children need to be tested for medical problems from exposure
to the drug. Others can't take toys or teddy bears with them when they are
removed from their homes because they have been tainted by fumes from meth
production.

"It is so toxic," Payne said.

Hounshel and other law enforcement officials attending the news conference
supported the efforts and hailed legislation that would require medicines
containing ephedrine, an ingredient used to make meth, to be placed behind
a pharmacy counter. People buying the cold medicine would have to show
identification before making the purchase if the bill becomes law.

Hounshel said those efforts along with other factors, including high bonds
for meth makers, could eventually slow down meth activity in Jackson County.

A year ago, 55 labs were discovered in the county. As of Tuesday, nine labs
had been discovered here, Seymour Detective Lt. Carl Lamb said.

"We think we're making progress," Lamb said.