METH MANUFACTURERS SHOULD FACE HARDER PENALTIES, LAW OFFICIALS SAY

CHARLOTTE -- People who operate methamphetamine labs, especially in
households with children, should get tougher punishment than state law now
allows, justice officials say.

N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper and Van Shaw Jr., an agent with the State
Bureau of Investigation in Charlotte, lobbied the N.C. Sentencing and
Policy Advisory Commission yesterday for tougher penalties for
manufacturing meth, including longer prison sentences.

They also sought a separate felony child-endangerment charge for making
meth in the presence of minors.

"The penalties are really not in line with the danger and the addictive
effects of the drug," Shaw said Thursday before the meeting.

Someone charged with manufacturing or selling the highly addictive drug
could face between seven and 23 years in jail, depending on the amount of
the drug. Most first-time offenders receive probation and often are
arrested again for manufacturing meth, Shaw said.

Prosecutors can't apply North Carolina's child-endangerment laws in meth
cases because the laws don't deal with drug manufacturing, he said.

If illegal drugs are manufactured in a home with children present, the
parents can now be charged with neglect, said Jo Ann Lamm, the program
administrator for the state's division of family support and child-welfare
services.

The N.C. Department of Social Services can file abuse charges if a child
receives chemical burns or is hurt during an explosion or fire, said Karen
George, the executive director of the N.C. Association of County Directors
of Social Services.

Volatile chemicals used in making meth easily can explode, and the vapors
they give off can cause serious respiratory ailments. At least 74 North
Carolina children this year have been found in homes with meth labs, and
many of them have tested positive for exposure to the drug, said Shaw, who
oversees the state's clandestine laboratory response program.

"Most kids removed from homes with meth labs are having upper respiratory
problems, chemically induced pneumonia, those type of things," he said.
"When they pick up that pacifier or that bottle, it could potentially have
meth on it."

So far this year, law-enforcement agencies have busted 171 labs, up from 98
in 2002 and 34 in 2001, Shaw said.

The Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission has to give its approval
before the proposed law goes to the General Assembly in May for review and
sponsorship.

Legislators are limited in the types of new legislation that they can
introduce in the second year of a two-year legislative session, but Cooper
said he didn't foresee that as a problem.

"This issue is so serious I believe the General Assembly will want to
address it," Cooper said.