YONTS WOULD TIGHTEN LAW ON MAKING METH

Supreme Court Ruling Prompts Push For Change

FRANKFORT -- Law enforcement agencies and prosecutors will have an
easier time charging and convicting methamphetamine makers if
legislation before the House of Representatives is enacted, backers of
a consolidated bill say.

No vote was taken in the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, but
primary sponsor Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, said he expected it to
be approved by the committee when it meets next week after a bit more
tweaking.

Yonts sponsored House Bill 24, which specifies that possession of two
or more chemicals and two or more pieces of equipment with intent to
manufacture methamphetamine is unlawful. Rep. Jack Coleman, D-Bergen,
and Rep. Buddy Buckingham, D-Murray, filed similar bills. Yonts and
Rep. Reginald Meeks, D-Louisville, filed bills placing stricter
controls on ephedrine and like substances, which are used to make
methamphetamine.

The bills were prompted by last summer's Kentucky Supreme Court ruling
that said suspects must have all -- not just some -- of the necessary
ingredients before being charged with manufacturing methamphetamine, a
cheap but highly addictive drug.

All of the various bills were rolled into one bill that says that
suspects can be charged with methamphetamine violations when in
possession of just two meth-making ingredients and equipment to make
it with.

The bill says that a person is guilty of possession of methamphetamine
precursors when he or she possesses a drug containing ephedrine or
pseudoephedrine, red phosphorus, lithium not in a battery and
anhydrous ammonia not in a proper container with the intent to make
meth. Possession of two or more precursors together with necessary
equipment is enough evidence to prove the intent to manufacture meth.

An amendment offered by Yonts would make it illegal to possess only
two or more chemicals and two or more items of equipment at the same
time, with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine.

Gale Cook, president of the Kentucky Commonwealths Attorneys
Association and the commonwealth's attorney for Calloway and Marshall
counties, said law enforcement agencies and prosecutors need more
tools to fight methamphetamine.

"Three years ago people cooked meth for their own use," she said.
"Now, people manufacture who do not use it and sell it wholesale to
middle level distributors. Their organization has enforcers who
collect. ... With meth, we're moving into areas of organized crime we
have not seen."

W. Robert Lotz, an attorney and legislative director for the Kentucky
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, objected to a part of the
bill that he said treats a person who possesses a meth precursor the
same as a person in possession of the drug itself.

"We don't need to concentrate on giant hammers," Lotz said.
"Prosecutors have enough weapons. ... A person in a car with coffee
filters and cotton balls is subject to arrest and search."

Rep. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, said she was concerned about individual
rights being violated by a law that creates a dragnet and could
involve innocent people.