MAKING METH LAWS TOUGHER

New Bill Would Address Ingredients and Cleanups

A three-bill package before the Alabama Legislature alters the state's laws
regarding methamphetamine, an easily-manufactured drug that continues to be
a growing epidemic in the northeast corner of the state.

Law enforcement officers will welcome anything to help in the fight against
this dangerous drug. In recent years Northeast Alabama has witnessed brutal
crimes linked to methamphetamine and at least one deadly fire that involved
the drug. Despite the fact that law enforcement efforts seem to be yielding
arrests and uncovering labs on a weekly basis, there continue to be labs to
find and alleged meth-makers to arrest.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, would rewrite Alabama's
relatively new drug manufacturing law to make possession of a single
ingredient used in making methamphetamine illegal if the person planned to
use it to produce the drug. Under the current law, it is illegal to possess
two or more ingredients.

It would also make it a crime to knowingly sell or furnish the ingredients
used to make methamphetamine and would provide that when a person is
convicted of running a methamphetamine lab, they must pay for the cost of
testing and cleaning up the lab.

The cleanup factor of the bill may be the most welcome element of the
package. According to Mike O'Dell, district attorney for DeKalb and
Cherokee counties, the labs leave toxins that can cost between $6,000 and
$20,000 to clean up. He cited one case in which the cleanup cost $80,000 -
more than the house where the lab had been found was worth.

With 400 meth labs found in the northeastern part of the state last year
alone, cleanup costs are a serious consideration. Right now, federal funds
are used to pay for those cleanups. Saving federal funds may not be the
state's top concern, but ultimately we all know where those federal funds
come from - from taxpayers' pockets.

It would be far better to see the people who profited or planned to profit
from making methamphetamine pay for cleaning up their own mess.

In addition to doing that, passing these bills will give law enforcement
officers and prosecutors additional weapons to use in fighting those
involved with the manufacture of methamphetamine.