METH BILLS ON SPEED

Virginia Lawmakers Desperate to Fight the Growing Methamphetamine
Trade Should Slow Down and Take More Effective Action.

A Senate committee just reported out one of about a dozen bills
Virginia's General Assembly will consider this session to toughen the
penalties against methamphetamine abuse. The measure won the
committee's overwhelming support, of course. We say "of course"
because the illegal manufacture, distribution and use of
methamphetamine is so dangerous: Meth labs are easily set up and
volatile, and they create highly toxic waste and a drug that is
extremely addictive. Law enforcement officials say meth has replaced
OxyContin as Southwest Virginia's worst drug scourge. Obviously, any
laws designed to slow the spread of this pernicious invader will be
politically safe to support. More than safe - mandatory.

But as lawmakers in Richmond prepare to pile tougher penalties atop
tougher penalties in response to the meth boom, they and the public
should consider: What, exactly, is the objective?

Is it to score quick and easy political points? Or to stop the meth
trade from metastasizing throughout the state? If it's the latter,
legislators are going about it the wrong way.

On Thursday, this newspaper reported that the Senate Courts of Justice
Committee approved SB 1121, which would make it a felony to possess
two or more methamphetamine ingredients with the intent to manufacture
the drug. The committee sent the bill on to the Senate Finance
Committee because a felony conviction on the charge would be
punishable by up to five years in prison. And, presuming at least some
entrepreneurs in such a fast-growing industry would be caught with
product ingredients, more people would be going to prison, which would
cost money.

The same day this report appeared, the newspaper published an
Associated Press story from Oklahoma.

The meth trade started out West and has been moving inexorably east
like some biblical plague of locusts. Oklahoma authorities have years
of experience fighting it.

And, after years of locking up meth makers yet watching their numbers
grow, AP reported, "Oklahoma got tough. It locked up the meth makers'
cold medicine." Last year, the state ordered nonprescription
decongestants such as Sudafed, which contain meth's key ingredient
pseudoephedrine, to be placed behind pharmacy counters. Ten months
later, meth lab busts in Oklahoma had dropped more than 80 percent. An
average 105 busts a month was down to 19. Virginia is a conservative
state, seldom on the cutting edge, slow to change. That has its
problems, but one advantage it provides its lawmakers is the benefit
of other states' experiences.

Let's look to Oklahoma, and learn.