BARRON'S BILLS WOULD HELP IN METH BATTLE

The DeKalb County Drug Task Force continues to battle record amounts of
methamphetamine, it got a little help from Montgomery on Wednesday.

State Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, flanked by DeKalb County District
Attorney Mike O'Dell, Deputy DA Ben Baxley and task force commander Darrell
Collins, Barron announced legislation that would help with testing and
cleanup costs that go along with busting a meth lab.

The legislation would also help officials prosecute people who provide the
chemicals used to make meth.

"In the last two years, we have seen this deadly drug spread to epidemic
proportions throughout Alabama," Barron said. "In DeKalb and Jackson
counties, law enforcement officials seized a combined total of more than
200 labs last year. Sadly, it appears they could exceed that number this year."

If the legislation, which cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on
Wednesday, passes the Senate and the House and is signed by Gov. Bob Riley,
it would require the courts to assess restitution for forensic analysis and
cleanup against the person convicted of a controlled substance offense or
of operating an illegal lab.

"I believe the one who committed this crime, not the taxpayer, should pay
for the costs incurred in cleaning up and handling this toxic material,"
Barron said.

Barron also has two other pieces of legislation that would modify existing law.

The first makes it illegal to possess any single precursor substance or
substance with the intent to make a controlled substance. Currently,
somebody must possess more than one substance before it is illegal.

The second bill, according to Barron, closes a potential loophole and
clarifies that merchants who sell precursor substances with knowledge of
their intended illegal use are violation the law.

"We must fight the manufacture and use of this deadly drug at all levels -
from beginning to end, and that is what this package of legislation will
do," Barron said. "We do not want to put additional inmates in our prisons,
but we simply cannot allow them to continue to harm our society."