KILGORE CALLS FOR ANTI-DRUG BILLS

Methamphetamine Crackdown A Priority For Likely Candidate

Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, the likely GOP nominee for governor
next year, unveiled the first of his election-year legislative
priorities by offering bills to crack down on the manufacture and use
of methamphetamines.

At a midday news conference, Kilgore called for a package of bills
during the General Assembly session that begins in January. The bills
would double prison terms for making methamphetamine, make it a crime
to produce the drug in the presence of a child and create a
multi-agency "strike force" to clean up areas where the substance is
made.

The legislation, which will be sponsored by Sen. Mark D. Obenshain
(R-Harrisonburg) and Del. Charles W. Carrico Sr. (R-Grayson), also
would require people convicted of running the clandestine factories to
pay for cleanup. "What we have is a growing problem throughout the
entire commonwealth reaching dangerously high levels" in southwest
Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley, said Kilgore, who added that the
drug is made with over-the-counter cold remedies and household chemicals.

"We rarely see cocaine being manufactured in Virginia. We do, however,
see meth being manufactured here and with increasing frequency," the
attorney general said. "The fact is that while cocaine is manufactured
in Bogota, meth is more likely manufactured in places like Bristol or
Botetourt." The drug, a stimulant that can be distributed as pills or
a powder, has become a major issue of concern in some areas, including
the northern Shenandoah Valley. In the past five years,
methamphetamine has become the most-seized drug along the north-south
corridor between Winchester and Harrisonburg, a belt that parallels
Skyline Drive and Interstate 81. In Virginia this year, 78 labs have
been shut, compared with 34 last year. Obenshain said 82 percent of
all hard drugs seized in the Shenandoah Valley during the first half
of 2003 were methamphetamines. In many cases, the drug has replaced
OxyContin and other prescription painkillers that often are abused in
rural areas, he said.

Carrico and Obenshain said they fear that the drug problems in the
state's rural areas might be harbingers for other parts of the
commonwealth. "In southwest Virginia and in the Shenandoah Valley,
we've been getting a preview of what is heading our way," Obenshain
said. Experts in Virginia politics said the bundle of legislation is
Kilgore's attempt to continue to burnish his image as a candidate who
is tough on crime and public safety issues as he prepares for the
gubernatorial campaign against his likely opponent, Lt. Gov. Timothy
M. Kaine (D). Last year, Kilgore outlined a package of legislation
that addressed the increasing gang activity throughout the state, as
well as an agenda that dealt with domestic violence. Experts said
Kilgore's action also is an attempt to address a problem in parts of
the state that are politically key: Southwest Virginia, where he is
from, and the Shenandoah Valley.

"It certainly helps him shore up a part of the state that Mark Warner
did very well in. . . . I'm sure he does not want to provide the
Democratic nominee [the opportunity] to make those same inroads," said
Mark Rozell, a professor of politics at George Mason University.