KILGORE TARGETS SOURCES OF DRUG

He Proposes Doubling To 10 Years Minimum Penalty For
Methamphetamine Makers

In the walkup to his campaign for governor next year, Attorney General
Jerry W. Kilgore wants to crack down on a virulent drug crime plaguing
his home turf of Southwest Virginia.

Yesterday, the Republican rolled out a major proposal that calls on
the GOP-controlled General Assembly to double the minimum penalty to
10 years in prison for manufacturers of methamphetamine.

Currently, offenders face five to 40 years behind bars.

Additionally, Kilgore wants lawmakers, at their session beginning Jan.
12, to create a separate offense, also punishable by 10 to 40 years,
for producing the drug in the presence of a child. The punishment
would be tacked on to a manufacturing sentence.

The attorney general also wants to establish guidelines to clean up
the manufacturing sites, which present toxic dangers for neighbors.
Cleanup costs would be paid for by the offenders.

Describing his package as comprehensive, Kilgore argued that it would
significantly "increase our efforts to make Virginia meth-free."

"We rarely see cocaine being manufactured in Virginia," Kilgore said.
"We do, however, see meth manufactured here and with increasing frequency."

"The fact is that while cocaine is manufactured in Bogota," he argued,
"meth is more likely manufactured in places like Bristol or Botetourt."

"Meth" laboratories have become a flourishing cottage industry in the
Southwest as well as the Shenandoah Valley and, some predict, the
illegal producers threaten to make their addictive drug in other parts
of the state.

The industry is growing in the commonwealth, Kilgore said, and
law-enforcement efforts are hampered because some of the components
used in its manufacture, including drain cleaners and farm
fertilizers, are legal.

Last year, Kilgore said, police and sheriffs discovered and dismantled
34 labs. But the number has mushroomed to 78 this year, with more than
half of them in Southwest and western Virginia.

State Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, who accompanied Kilgore
at a news conference, suggested that the drug scourge may soon spread
to the rest of the state. "In Southwest Virginia and in the Shenandoah
Valley, we've been getting a preview of what is heading our way,"
Obenshain said. He will sponsor parts of the plan in the Virginia Senate.

Del. Charles W. Carrico Sr., R-Grayson, a former state trooper who
will carry the legislation in the House, said he favors the plan to
"put more people behind bars longer."

Obenshain said methamphetamine affects "an entirely new population of
drug users - factory and agriculture workers."

Kilgore, who's expected to oppose Democratic Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine
in the governor's race to be decided next November, said he will lobby
for other crime-fighting measures at the legislative session.

He mentioned bills on domestic violence and gang-free schools.