NEW TOOLS TO FIGHT METH WAR PROPOSED

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Radical steps may be needed to stem Oklahoma's
spreading methamphetamine manufacturing problem, lawmakers were told
Thursday. "It's a very difficult subject, one that's going like a wildfire
in Oklahoma," said Rep. John Nance, R-Bethany, who requested the interim
study on the problem.

The study is being conducted by the House Criminal Justice Committee, whose
chairman, Rep. Paul Roan, D-Tishomingo, is a former Highway Patrol trooper.

Law enforcement officials testified that a strictly law-and-order approach
to the problem will not work because most Oklahoma meth makers are addicted
and not making the drug for a profit.

Lonnie Wright, director of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Narcotics and
Dangerous Drugs, said bold approaches to the problem are needed.

Wright suggested expanding treatment programs and placing tighter controls
on common cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, the chemical most used
in meth manufacturing.

He also said lawmakers could look at developing a civil commitment
procedure for small-time meth manufacturers, an idea of the narcotics
bureau's general counsel, Scott Rowland.

Under such a system, meth makers would be confined after their arrest for
weeks or months so they could be detoxified.

Wright said the addiction is so strong that even the death penalty would
not be deterrent. Meth makers do not now qualify for drug courts, which
have had significant success in getting drug offenders to turn their lives
around, he noted.

Wright said pseudoephedrine is "the single product that is responsible for
this" and tighter controls are needed, even though they would be fought by
pharmaceutical companies.

He said he would like information on how many of the estimated 4,000
products using the chemical are suitable for use in the meth-making process.

Nance warned lawmakers to be "very sensitive" in how they present proposed
changes in the drug policy to the public so they are not accused of being
soft on crime.

Calling himself "a hardcore old narcotics agent," Wright said he was
anything but soft on crime but now understands that current policies aren't
stopping the spread of meth labs that are endangering the public's health.