BILL TARGETS METH MAKERS, SELLERS

FRANKFORT - Legislation approved by a House committee yesterday would
streamline state laws aimed at punishing the makers and distributors
of methamphetamine.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Gross Lindsay called it a consensus bill
that "makes some sense out of the hodgepodge" of laws that pertain to
"meth."

Prosecutors want legislation because of a Kentucky Supreme Court
ruling last year that complicated their efforts to win
convictions.

Meth cases already were problematic because the drug is made with
common ingredients and equipment, such as cold tablets and disposable
batteries.

The Supreme Court ruled that a suspect must be caught with all the
ingredients, not just some, because of the way Kentucky law was worded.

George Moore, former head of the Commonwealth's Attorneys Association,
said the bill would enable prosecutors to go after people for
possessing ingredients used to produce meth.

The bill would create the crime of trafficking of a methamphetamine
"precursor," a term for any of the chemicals used in making the
illicit drug.

Also yesterday, the Kentucky Senate passed a drug-related bill that
would create the crime of "controlled-substance endangerment to a child."

Anyone making meth or any other controlled substance in front of a
child could be charged with a felony.