SENATE PASSES METH BILL UNANIMOUSLY

The Senate has unanimously passed a bill that aims to control
over-the-counter medicines and other items needed to manufacture
methamphetamine, but the narrow defeat of amendments seeking to add some
penalties may signal more debate when the legislation reaches the House.

The bill seeks to halt the spread of makeshift drug labs in West Virginia
by limiting the availability of cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine
- -- a crucial ingredient of the illegal narcotic.

Senate Minority Leader Vic Sprouse sought to add penalties for
methamphetamine laboratories within 1,000 feet of a school, injuries
suffered by first responders to a lab and possessing pseudoephedrine with
the intent to manufacture drugs near a school.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Jeff Kessler argued the amendments were not
specific enough and would create extra laws relating specifically to
methamphetamine crimes.

Kessler, D-Marshall, said he would work with Senate Republicans and their
House counterparts to clean up the language, but urged rejection of the
three amendments, which failed by votes of 17-17, 15-19 and 10-24.

House Minority Leader Charles Trump, R-Morgan, said he would consider
readdressing the failed Senate amendments when the bill reaches the House
floor.

But House Judiciary Chairman Jon Amores said he did not expect many
changes. "So much effort has already been applied in the Senate, in terms
of reconciling the objectives of the bill with the science of the bill,"
said Amores, D-Kanawha.

The legislation would restrict customers to the purchase of three packages
a month of the about dozen cold medicines using pseudoephedrine as the sole
active ingredient, and would establish penalties ranging from misdemeanors
to felonies for possession of various chemicals.

- -- including pseudoephedrine, iodine and anhydrous ammonia -- with the
intent to produce methamphetamine.