MORE USE OF DRUG COURTS URGED FOR METH ADDICTS

Oklahoma needs major changes to stem skyrocketing rates of methamphetamine
production and addiction, including more regulation and a shift toward
rehabilitating users, lawmakers were told this week. Officials from law
enforcement and public health agencies testified before the House Criminal
Justice Committee for two days as part of an interim study on
methamphetamine use. It included numerous elected officials and narcotics
officers, many telling lawmakers that methamphetamine use is draining
manpower and budgets from state and local agencies.

"It's growing like a wildfire in Oklahoma," said John Nance, R-Bethany, who
requested the study.

Despite fears of being considered soft on crime, narcotics officers from
several agencies told lawmakers they should begin looking at ways to get
more methamphetamine addicts into treatment programs, such as drug courts.
They said it would have a ripple effect because most methamphetamine
producers are addicts.

"Incarceration is not a deterrent" said Lonnie Wright, director of the
Oklahoma State Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. "They are addicted.
They are driven to it."

Oklahoma law enforcement agencies seized 1,254 methamphetamine labs last
year, placing the state among the nation's leaders, according to numbers
provided by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.
That's an increase from the 10 seized in 1994.

The massive increase is credited to new recipes for production allowing a
change from major methamphetamine production rings to small-time
operations, often six or eight addicts, Wright said. The new recipes use
widely available products, such as pseudoephedrine.

"The goal is to sell enough to get back the cost of materials," Wright
said. "As soon as they're out, they're back to making it again."

That shift to small-time operations made up of addicts is the reason many
are calling for change in Oklahoma's drug policy. If a majority of addicts
ended their addiction to the drug, it would free up narcotics officers to
hunt larger operations that are making cocaine, heroin and marijuana in
addition to methamphetamine, said Scott Rowland, chief legal counsel for
the Oklahoma State Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

"These crimes are not economically motivated," Rowland said. "They are
addiction motivated."

Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris said methamphetamine also is
causing public health problems statewide. He said taxpayers often are
footing the bill for the 109 percent increase in emergency room deaths and
370 percent increase in visits from 1994-97 in Tulsa County.

Harris said it costs about $2,500 to clean up each methamphetamine lab,
many of which are found in vehicles, hotel rooms or homes.

Some at the hearing touted drug courts -- operating in 24 counties -- as a
viable alternative. Taxpayers saved millions of dollars in recent months as
a result of Oklahoma County's drug court because offenders were
rehabilitated and gained full-time jobs instead of going to prison, said
Kelly Basey, assistant district attorney assigned to the court.

Rates of recidivism are much lower from drug court graduates, about 14
percent for women and 21 percent for men, said Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin, who
spoke during the hearings. She is also chairwoman of a task force studying
incarceration rates of women in Oklahoma prisons.

But Basey said not enough money is available to get many who qualify into
the drug court system. She said it costs several thousand dollars to put
indigents into treatment systems, meaning when money runs out they are sent
to prison.

"All we've done is fill up jails and keep them full," former Oklahoma
County District Attorney Bob Macy said. "There's got to be a better way.
And I think drug court is one of them."

Nance said the Legislature probably will address several issues when it
reconvenes early next year. He said the committee -- led by Rep. Paul Roan,
D- Tishomingo, a former Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper -- will study
requiring locks on anhydrous ammonia tanks, creating regional collection
points where officers can store materials for cleanup and increasing drug
courts in the state.

"We are pushing for drug courts," Nance said. "We're going to be perceived
as soft on crime, but what we're doing isn't working."