WATAUGA TAKES AIM AT SPREAD OF DRUG

N.C.'s AG Says He'll Ask For Laws, Funds To Fight Methamphetamine Labs

Roy Cooper, North Carolina's attorney general, told residents gathered
in Watauga County yesterday that he plans to ask the N.C. General
Assembly for legislation and money to help curb the spread of
clandestine methamphetamine labs across the state.

'The growing problem of these secret labs is quickly becoming an
epidemic,' 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 Boone area Chamber of Commerce organized the meeting, with help
from the Watauga County Sheriff's Office.

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.

Robin Pendergraft, the director of the State Bureau of Investigation,
also spoke at the session, which featured presentations by SBI
drug-enforcement experts.

Cooper, who spoke briefly to open the meeting, said afterward that he
accepted the invitation to visit the northwestern mountain county
because it has been on the front line in the fight against the spread
of small-scale methamphetamine labs across the state.

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 it is unfortunate that Watauga County has had to bear
the brunt of the problem so far and that the SBI would continue to
help local law-enforcement officials fight the problem.

However, he said he is especially worried that the rash of meth labs
uncovered in Watauga will soon cover the entire state.

'I fear this problem is spreading. That's why we need to address it
now, with a comprehensive package,' Cooper said.

Cooper said that a state summit on the issue is being planned for next
month in Winston-Salem to educate legislators, state officials and the
public about the growing methamphetamine problem.

The meeting will focus on intervention, prevention, detection and
punishment issues, Cooper said.

Cooper said that the need for legislative action was illustrated by a
recent decision by Jerry Wilson, Watauga County's district attorney,
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 (Wilson's 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,' he said.