MANCHIN GOING AFTER METH LABS IN W.VA.

CHARLESTON - You need a lot of cold and sinus medicine to cook up a batch
of methamphetamine.

Mindful of that, Gov. Joe Manchin is going after three key ingredients in
the illegal stew, hoping to make it tougher to whip up a brew of street drugs.

Manchin declared war in his first State of the State message on illegal
meth labs and asked lawmakers to limit access to three ingredients in the
recipe.

Getting a quick start on the legislation, Manchin's bill was introduced
Thursday in the Senate.

The idea is to hit meth lab operators where it hurts most - denying them
unlimited quantities of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and phenylpropanolamine.

"I think it will be a tremendous help," State Police Lt. Mike Goff of the
Dunbar detachment said shortly after the bill was read.

A telltale sign of an illegal meth lab is the presence of 30 to 40
containers of cold and sinus medicine in a house where an operation is
suspected, the officer said.

"I've never seen anyone with sinus trouble that warrants that kind of
medicine," he said. "A whole household of people couldn't use that much."

Under the Manchin bill, anyone selling, making or distributing the three
chemicals must be registered with the Board of Pharmacy.

Moreover, the substances could only be sold or distributed by a doctor,
pharmacy, pharmacist or licensed pharmacy technician.

Anyone buying the substances would need to display a photo ID, giving the
person's date of birth, and sign a form showing the transaction date, name
and amount purchased.

"Not only do these volatile and often crude labs create illegal and highly
addictive drugs, they endanger our towns and put at risk the lives of all
law enforcement personnel," Manchin said.

In Oklahoma, he pointed out, a similar law has cut the number of meth labs
by 60 percent.

"One meth lab is too many," Raleigh County chief deputy prosecutor Kristen
Keller said, "especially since they're operated out of homes where there
are children."

Within a 48-hour period last week, Goff pointed out, nine locations
suspected of running meth labs were raided in Kanawha County.

"They're pretty much isolated, scattered around, but they've been down in
Raleigh County," he said. "They keep increasing. You're seeing more and
more of it."

One inescapable and common trait is the filth associated with such
makeshift drug labs, the officer said.

"You look at the people living in those homes, the cars driven and the
condition of the places," he said. "They're just so nasty. Apparently no
money is being made. It all goes back into the cooking process."

So much filth is prevalent that law enforcement agencies don't bother
seizing property. Just about everything in sight is stained, he noted.

"It's contaminated," the trooper said.

"And if children are present while the meth is cooking, they're getting
exposed to the chemicals."

As amphetamine abuse has proliferated, other problems have abounded. One is
the bad effect on teeth, evidenced by lab owners sent to prison, Goff said.

"One of the side effects is meth rots teeth," the officer said. "Now we're
seeing a lot of it in increased health costs to prisons."

In recent years, the Legislature took another step toward cracking down on
meth labs, making the operation of one a felony rather than a misdemeanor.

One thing meth makers need is the phosphorous found in the strip on
matchboxes required to strike a match.

"There's no easy way to control that," Goff said.

Cold medicine, the more obvious source of meth ingredients, is another
question.

"For the sake of our families and our children, I am putting meth lab users
on notice tonight that we are going to declare war on this drug and the
dangerous, makeshift meth labs that are too often leading to tragedy,"
Manchin told lawmakers.

"Enough is enough."