ATTACKING METH MENACE AT THE SOURCE

Restricting Sales Of Over-The-Counter Cold Medicine Is One Way To Curb Abuse

Politicians bandy about many different ways to deal with the methamphetamine
problem plaguing the nation.

They claim stopping cooks from getting their hands on materials used
to manufacture the drug is one way. A more assertive public education
campaign is also an option.

But what many officials fail to realize is the full force of the
drug's destructive power. Not only is it frightfully dangerous to
cook, a meth addiction can destroy a person.

Putnam County's meth lab busts have gone up every year for the last
four years. Police there have already busted 30 labs this year, two
more than they did in all of 2003.

Mark Sorsaia, the county's prosecuting attorney, says his office works
hard to bring cooks and users to justice and the state has made some
headway by passing legislation that makes it harder for cooks to get
what they need, but ending the problem isn't that simple.

"We passed a law in West Virginia to make it illegal to possess the
materials to make meth, and there are ways to limit the supply of the
drug needed to cook," Sorsaia said. "Those are worthy of discussion,
but there is not going to be a magic pill that solves our problem."

Like many states, West Virginia does not have bottomless coffers.
Sorsaia said both the Department of Corrections and the State Police
are working on shoestring budgets. Because the State Police have less
money to work with, their crime lab has been understaffed and they
can't process evidence collected at labs as fast as prosecutors would
like.

Sorsaia contends the addiction is so crippling, even if a user is
tried, convicted and jailed, the first thing many do once they are
released is try to score a fix.

Though Putnam County is thought to be a hotbed for meth activity,
Sorsaia attributes that to the aggressive policing. He thinks the
problem could actually be worse in other places, but authorities there
aren't looking for labs.

Meth is also a factor in other crimes. Users mug people and break into
homes and cars trying to steal something they can sell, investigators
say.

The issue has recently popped up in the presidential election. Vice
presidential candidate John Edwards held a conference call earlier
this month detailing how John Kerry's administration would address the
problem.

Edwards said the best way to deal with meth labs is to stop cooks from
getting the precursors.

According to statistics provided by the campaign, the number of meth
labs busted over the last four years has increased from 8,971 in 2000
to 16,068 last year.

To tackle the problem Edwards presented a plan that would prevent the
production and sale of the drug, prosecute cooks more severely, expand
education and treatment efforts and clean up hazardous labs.

The thrust of the plan would be to prevent the cooks from getting
access to psuedophedrine, a chemical found in most over-the-counter
cold medicines and the drug's main ingredient.

The plan would limit a consumer to "two standard packages of
pseudoephedrine-containing medicine per day." Local and state
officials would enforce the mandate.

"We want to make it harder to get these cold medications in bulk,"
Edwards said.

Cleaning a busted lab is also a focal point of the plan. Flammable,
toxic chemicals are a byproduct of the process and they are expensive
to dispose of.

Lt Steve Neddo of the Metro Drug Unit said the federal government
currently cleans the labs, but there have been rumors that may stop.

The byproduct of a cook is nasty, toxic stuff and the disposal of it
requires trained hazardous material teams.

"Trust me, cities and counties don't have the money to deal with that
kind of clean up," Neddo said.

A plan Neddo would like to see enacted is one similar to one recently
adopted in Oklahoma.

The law's main component put a monthly 9-gram limit on pseudoephedrine
purchases by any one customer.

Neddo argued that a package of cold medicine only has about .10 grams
of pseudoephedrine per pill. It wouldn't stop people with a cold or
sinus infection from getting medicine, but it would limit someone
buying the drug in bulk.

"That allows you more than you should ever take," he said.

The Oklahoma law would also put the cold medicines behind glass and
people would have to show identification at the time of purchase.

Mary Diamond, a spokeswoman for President Bush, said the president's
plan to battle meth has been a major success.

"Even Kerry and Edwards acknowledge on their own Web site that
President Bush has made this a priority," she said, citing statistics
on the site that show there has been a 79 percent increase in the
number of labs busted since 2000.