ATTORNEY GENERAL WANTS LAWS, FUNDS TO FIGHT METH LABS

North Carolina's attorney general says he plans to ask the General
Assembly for help in curbing the spread of clandestine methamphetamine
labs across the state.

"The growing problem of these secret labs is quickly becoming an
epidemic," Attorney General Roy Cooper said at a community forum in
Boone. "The drug kingpins aren't in other countries. They are right in
our own back yard."

The forum focused on public health and safety problems posed by
methamphetamine and the toxic combination of household chemicals used
to make the illegal drug. It was organized by the Boone area Chamber
of Commerce with help from the Watauga County Sheriff's Office.

Small-scale methamphetamine labs began proliferating on the West Coast
nearly 25 years ago, authorities said. Since then, they have spread
steadily, becoming a scourge 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 the western part of the state. Watauga County has been one
of the hardest-hit areas.

So far this year, SBI agents and local law-enforcement officials have
raided about 116 labs statewide, Cooper said. Of those, 24 labs, or
one out of every five, has been found in Watauga, making it "ground
zero" in the effort to root out the secret labs and the people
operating them, he said.

SBI officials said that the number of clandestine meth labs found by
law-enforcement officials could reach as high as 400 statewide next
year. Four years ago, only six meth labs were raided statewide.

Cooper said that the need for legislative action was illustrated by a
recent decision by Watauga County district attorney Jerry Wilson to
prosecute people accused of making methamphetamine by using laws
prohibiting chemical weapons of mass destruction.

Wilson plans to use the anti-terrorism statutes because the statutes
carry stiffer penalties than the laws governing meth production.

"This (move) is clearly evidence of the frustration that law
enforcement officials and prosecutors feel about the inadequate
resources they have to fight this new and dangerous problem," Cooper
said. "That's why we need ... the General Assembly to help us deal
with this.