WATAUGA PROSECUTOR FIGHTS RULING ON USING TERROR LAW IN METH CASES

BOONE - The Watauga County prosecutor who used a law intended to combat
terrorism to fight the spread of clandestine methamphetamine
laboratories in Northwest North Carolina will fight a judge's recent
ruling against him.

Judge James Baker of Watauga Superior Court ruled Friday that the
process of "cooking" methamphetamine does not create a weapon of mass
destruction - throwing out 15 charges against at least 10 people in
the process.

Jerry Wilson, Watauga's district attorney, filed an appeal
yesterday.

Since July. Wilson has charged a number of Watauga County residents
under the North Carolina weapons-of-mass-destruction statute because
meth "cooks" combine toxic and volatile chemicals to produce the
illegal drug.

These chemical combinations create a number of hazardous substances
that could harm neighbors, law-enforcement personnel, emergency
personnel and firefighters.

Wilson decided to use the anti-terrorism law to deter the county's
growing meth problem because it carries much stiffer sentences than
laws that prohibit the drug's production.

He said yesterday that he still thinks that his application of the
weapons statute was appropriate because of the threat to society posed
by the toxic compounds and deadly gases created in meth production.

"We felt from the beginning that we were on firm legal footing,"
Wilson said. "To say that this law applies only to terrorists' conduct
is legislating from the bench. I feel good about the chance of having
our interpretation of the statute upheld by the appeals court."

On Friday, eight of the accused - unable to make bail that went as
high as $500,000 - sat in the courtroom and listened as Baker went
through the indictments and dismissed the weapons-of-mass-destruction
charges in each.

In addition to the charges that Baker dismissed, most of the accused
also face charges of manufacture, possession, sale or delivery of
methamphetamine or possession of the precursor chemicals for meth.

Small-scale methamphetamine labs began proliferating on the West Coast
nearly 25 years ago, according to experts.

Since then, they have spread steadily, becoming a major problem
nationwide.

In recent years, the problem has taken root in Tennessee and Georgia
and has been growing steadily in North Carolina, especially in
counties in Western North Carolina.

Watauga County has led the state in the number of raids on meth
labs.

In a September interview, N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper declined to
comment specifically on Wilson's tactics or the use of the
weapons-of-mass-destruction statute for drug manufacturing.

"It's a reflection of the frustration that law enforcement and
prosecutors feel about being overwhelmed by this problem of secret
drug labs and not being given the resources and the appropriate
sentencing for this type of activity," he said.