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 taxpayer 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
messes. 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.