LEGISLATORS WANT TO CRACK DOWN ON METH PROBLEM

Shenandoah County Sheriff Tim Carter is worried that more houses could pop
up in the western part of Virginia like the one where he and his drug task
force found Maurice Landry more than three years ago.

Landry, 34 years old at the time, lived in a cabin with maybe five rooms in
Fort Valley, a blue-collar town of about 1,000 people hidden in the
Massanutten Mountains. He lived with his 29-year-old girlfriend, Kimberly
Carter, and her 7-year-old daughter.

Sheriff Carter (no relation to Kimberly) said Landry used one of the rooms
as a lab for manufacturing methamphetamine, cooking what's known on the
street as poor man's cocaine with whatever ingredients he could come up
with. He eventually turned that room into a bedroom for Kimberly Carter's
daughter.

When the Northwest Task Force stormed the cabin in September 2001 and
arrested the couple, Sheriff Carter said officers found the lab, as well as
several firearms, including three revolvers and an AK-47 assault rifle.

They also found the 7-year-old girl.

Toxic chemicals from the production of meth had caused the 7-year-old
girl's brain to swell, Sheriff Carter said. She was sent to the Children's
National Medical Center in Washington.

According to a study by the El Paso Intelligence Center, more than 6,000
children have been involved in meth-lab related incidents from 2000 to
2002. In that same period, 52 have been injured, and five have died.

Such incidents have prompted legislative proposals to crack down on the
manufacturing and abuse of methamphetamine. The General Assembly is
considering bills to control the ingredients used to make meth; raise the
penalties for manufacturing the drug; and make it a separate crime to
manufacture meth in the presence of a child.

Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, is a driving force behind such proposals.

Sheriff Carter called Landry's operation a "mom-and-pop lab." Such
clandestine laboratories are a growing problem across the country. Police
have seized more labs in the past two years than they did in the previous
six years combined.

Clandestine labs are small and mobile, and operators can easily find on the
Internet recipes for making meth.

Landry's lab was the first to be seized by the Northwest Task Force. Up to
that point, the problem in Western Virginia had been the trafficking of
meth through Harrisonburg, Sheriff Carter said.

The Interstate 81 corridor has been considered an outlet for transporting
meth from Southwest Virginia.

Of the 26 task forces in the state, the two between Winchester and
Harrisonburg were responsible for more than 90 percent of the meth seizures
since 1998, Sheriff Carter said.

In recent years, Southwest Virginia has been a hot spot for cooking and
distributing meth, but statistics in the past two years show meth labs
spreading north. Sheriff Carter has talked with Obenshain on occasion in
the past year about how to attack the problem.

Obenshain is targeting the state's battle with methamphetamine
manufacturing in this year's General Assembly. Of the four Senate bills
aimed at fighting meth production, he has sponsored two.

Obenshain said he sees a window of opportunity and wants to take advantage
of it.

"We have the unique opportunity to do something about this problem now
before it becomes a pervasive statewide issue," Obenshain said. "Otherwise
we're going to wait, and we'll have 1,300 meth labs getting busted a year,
and we'll be trying to close the barn door after the horses have already
gotten out."

One of the senator's ideas was to go after the ingredients used to make
meth, some of which can be picked up at a neighborhood drug store (such as
pseudoephedrine pills like Sudafed).

When somebody buys large quantities of Sudafed, it should raise a red flag,
Obenshain said.

"You don't have meth users popping 20 Sudafed's," he said. "They go and
manufacture the meth."

One of Obenshain's bills would make it a felony to possess more than two of
what he called precursor chemicals for meth production. That measure
breezed through the Senate Courts of Justice Committee uncontested.

However, Obenshain's bill to make the punishment for meth offenses equal to
the punishment for cocaine offenses wasn't as successful.

Currently, he said, people who are caught moving cocaine get significantly
stiffer sentences than people making meth.

"I see no distinction between the two," Obenshain said.

But the Courts of Justice Committee did. Last week, it voted 4-8 against
Obenshain's bill.

Sheriff Carter said stronger state laws would help in cases such as the
Landry investigation.

He said the task forced charged Maurice Landry and Kimberly Carter on the
spot. They hit Landry with charges of conspiracy to manufacture a
controlled substance and possession of a firearm while in possession of a
controlled substance. Kimberly Carter faced charges of conspiring to
manufacture methamphetamine.

The state charges were dropped while federal prosecutors pursued the case,
Sheriff Carter said.

Landry was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in federal
court to conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess to distribute 50
grams or more of methamphetamine.

A federal grand jury charged Kimberly Carter with conspiracy, but Sheriff
Carter said those charges were dropped because of her cooperation with law
enforcement officials.

The sheriff said the 7-year-old daughter has been released from the
hospital and is back with Kimberly Carter, who still lives in the small
town nestled in the Massanutten Mountains.

Kimberly Carter could not be reached for comment for this story.

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[Sidebar]

Taking Aim At Methamphetamine

Legislators have proposed numerous bills this session to fight the
manufacturing and abuse of methamphetamine. Here are some of the measures:

HB 1565, sponsored by Delegate Robert Tata, R-Virginia Beach: Possessing
more than 9 grams of chemicals for making methamphetamine would be a Class
1 misdemeanor.

HB 1950, sponsored by Delegate Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City: Any person
possessing precursor chemicals with the intent to manufacture meth would be
guilty of a Class 6 felony.

HB 1951, sponsored by Kilgore: It would allow only a licensed pharmacist to
distribute substances containing pseudoephedrine. To buy such substances,
people would have to show a photo identification and sign a log. Also, this
bill would forbid a person from buying more than 9 grams of pseudoephedrine
in any 30-day period.

SB 1156, sponsored by Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle, R-Virginia Beach: It would
double the minimum penalty for manufacturing more than 200 grams of
methamphetamine from five to 10 years in prison. The bill also would make
it a felony to manufacture meth in the presence of a child.