CRACKING DOWN ON METH

N.C. Aims To Tighten Laws, Limit Sales Of Key Chemicals

Martin Dwayne Miller frustrated police.

It took three arrests to get him sentenced to prison for making
methamphetamine.

Each time Miller, 25, was arrested, he posted bond because making meth
carries the same penalty as possessing a marijuana plant in North Carolina.

And once Miller was free, he said, it was easy to start cooking the drug
again in his home county of Watauga, about 100 miles northwest of Charlotte.

Now Miller's serving three to four years for possession of the drug and the
chemicals used to make it. Officials worry that the number of users and
manufacturers cycling through the system will continue to grow.

N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper will propose a series of anti-meth
measures to the General Assembly this spring. The $14 million plan would
ask legislators to lengthen prison sentences for people who possess
chemicals used to make meth, train law enforcement and launch a public
awareness campaign.

But officials from California, the state that has battled meth since the
1970s, say his proposal might not be enough.

Craig Hammer, commander of California's Clandestine Laboratory Task Force,
said rooting out the chemicals used to make the drug will help stop its spread.

"Until you address the problem, and do it early, it's going to get
completely out of control," Hammer said.

In his proposal, Cooper, who's running for re-election this year, does not
address restricting chemical companies or legally limiting the sale of
products containing pseudoephedrine, a decongestant in cold medicines and a
key ingredient in making meth. He wants to try a voluntary approach with
retailers first.

After restricting the sale of those chemicals in 1996, California reduced
the number of meth labs from 2,090 in 1999 to 1,130 in 2002, the last year
for which federal data on lab busts are available.

The Carolinas are only beginning to see meth's impact.

Until 2000, the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation busted fewer than 10
meth labs per year, said Van Shaw, who oversees meth investigations for the
SBI. Last year, the number of meth labs busted reached 177. Officials
expect the number to top 300 this year. Meth labs have been found in about
half of N.C.'s 100 counties.

South Carolina agents seized four labs in 2000 and 127 last year, according
to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

As meth becomes more prevalent, Carolinas counties are facing rising inmate
populations and increasing numbers of children in foster care. The states
are spending thousands of federal dollars on cleanup.

S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster will convene a meeting of law
enforcement agencies in late April to begin developing a plan to fight
meth. In that state, people charged with meth possession on a first offense
face up to five years in prison and/or a $50,000 fine. Judges cannot give
probation on a second offense. Trafficking and manufacturing meth carry
sentences of seven to 30 years and fines of $50,000 to $200,000.

Cooper's Proposal

Cooper is proposing tougher penalties for manufacturers, especially for
those who make the drug around children. He also wants better training for
law enforcement, and he plans a campaign to raise awareness among
retailers, prosecutors and the public.The federal government regulates
chemical companies and restricts the sale of bottles of medicines
containing pseudoephedrine. But blister packs of pills are not restricted.

"The harder we make it to get the pseudoephedrine and other chemicals, the
harder (meth) will be to manufacture," said Ed Childress, a special agent
for the DEA.

Retail chains, such as Wal-Mart, CVS, Walgreens and Dollar General,
voluntarily restrict sales of products containing ephedrine or
pseudoephedrine. Family Dollar has signs on its store shelves stating that
a customer can buy only two packages of cold medicine per day.

Some legislators, including those in California and Missouri, have
restricted the sale of products with those ingredients at the state level.
South Carolina has laws limiting the sale of anhydrous ammonia and other
chemicals used to make meth.

Cooper said he first wants to try a voluntary program because some
retailers have been cooperative. The program would be modeled after one in
Kansas, with stores posting signs for customers and employees about
ingredients used to make meth.

"If this doesn't work, and I think we can determine that pretty early, then
certainly we could propose legislation to limit the quantities of precursor
chemicals that are purchased," Cooper said. "But the problem is that these
chemicals are commonly used."

Officials on the West Coast say that regulating the sale of chemicals is
one of their most proactive tools in fighting meth.

California officials in 1996 severely restricted the sale of red
phosphorus, commonly used to make meth. But they restricted white
phosphorus and hypophosphorus acid as well -- chemicals that could be used
to make red phosphorus.

"It identifies people in retail who are the weak links," said Laura
Birkmeyer, assistant U.S. attorney in San Diego and chairman of the
National Methamphetamine Chemicals Initiative, a group that offers training
and assistance in meth prosecutions nationwide. "You need laws like this to
figure out where your weaknesses are."

Officials traced chemicals found at meth lab sites back to businesses that
sold them and warned of possible criminal prosecution, civil penalties and
license revocations, said Hammer of California's Clandestine Laboratory
Task Force.

"Then the preponderance shifts to the companies. We went after them and put
them out of business, basically," he said. "If they don't cooperate, you
have a license you can revoke on them. It's a squeeze play, but sometimes
that's the only thing that works."

California is dealing with "superlabs," manufacturing operations that
produce 10 pounds or more of meth at a time using supplies bought from
chemical companies. But most Carolina "cooks" aren't getting ingredients
that way. They're mom and pop operators making anywhere from a few grams of
meth to a few ounces, buying ingredients at pharmacies and convenience and
hardware stores.

Cooper also said smugglers bring the chemicals across the U.S. border into
California, a problem that doesn't exist in North Carolina.

Paying For Prevention

Cooper says the biggest challenge for his proposal will be finding the
money to fund it.

His proposal calls for more training programs, law enforcement personnel,
special equipment and money for a public awareness campaign.

The Attorney General's Office is requesting in the 2004-05 state budget:

. $2 million for 42 new SBI positions, including chemists and drug agents.

. $8.9 million for an addition to the state's crime lab in Raleigh,
including money to open a lab in Asheville.

. $2.3 million in federal money to fund the SBI positions and lab equipment.

The federal and state money would allow the SBI to staff all eight of its
districts with at least one agent who would coordinate meth lab raids. Now,
field agents are pulled from other assignments to raid labs.

The SBI has 494 employees: 327 sworn agents, including chemists and lab
workers, and 167 support staff.

The Attorney General's Office also has applied for two grants from the
Governor's Crime Commission. One grant, for $670,000, would pay for six
response vehicles to supplement the SBI's two vehicles they now have to
cover the state. The other $23,800 grant would pay for production of an
emergency responder resource guide.

Cooper has traveled across the state to meet with law enforcement, social
services and retailers about the state's growing meth problem and build
support for his proposal.

In North Carolina, Watauga has been the most proactive county, the SBI's
Shaw said.

Watauga was one of the first counties in the state to form a meth task
force that includes law enforcement, social services, public health and
other agencies' representatives.

That county, along with Ashe, Johnston and Harnett counties, received a
$312,000 Drug Endangered Child grant from the U.S. Department of Justice
that would help pay for medical screenings for children from meth homes and
help law enforcement and social services departments.

The N.C. Association of County Directors of Social Services is using
Watauga's department as a model to develop a medical protocol for helping
children from meth homes.

"That's really alarming to me how a little agency has become the expert,"
county social worker Chad Slagle said. "Usually, the state tells us what
problems are coming next. But in this case, it's the other way around. Our
state is so far behind."

Watauga's Department of Social Services saw its meth-related caseload jump
43 percent, from 30 to 43 children between December 2002 and June 2003.

The Watauga Sheriff's Office is struggling to pay for a rise in the inmate
population at the 34-bed jail. Two years ago, the jail had about 30 inmates
a day. Now, that number is usually closer to 75, mainly because of an
increase in meth arrests. The office pays neighboring Caldwell County to
house overflow inmates.

Watauga sheriff's deputies complain that the laws haven't caught up to the
meth problems they see.

Operating a meth lab is a Class G felony in North Carolina, equivalent to
marijuana possession. After arrests, bonds are usually set at $1,000 to
$2,000. Judges generally sentence first offenders to probation.

Even repeat offenders, such as Miller, stand to serve only a few years in
prison.

"We keep busting the same people," said the SBI's Rick Hetzel, "over and
over and over again."

Miller pleaded guilty Feb. 9 to three sets of meth-related charges.

He got his first taste of meth at 15, when he cut class in the woods behind
his high school. The drug was hard to find then, so he alternated between
meth and cocaine for years. But a few years later it was suddenly abundant.
Miller became an everyday user.

Now the former auto mechanic has time to think about his drug habit and his
girlfriend, who's pregnant.

"I'm not going to see my baby born, not going to hear its first words, not
going to see it take its first steps," Miller said recently from behind a
glass window in the visitors' room of the Watauga jail. "There's nothing
good about that."