PROSECUTORS SEE INCREASE IN METH CASES

In the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force headquarters, Lyn Durham flips
through statistics on methamphetamine, a drug that has gained increasing
prominence among the cases she prosecutes. The statistics she reviews could
mean two things: Either that police have heavily cracked down on meth labs
in the past two years, or that the drug's presence has risen so drastically
in Tuscaloosa County that it has reached epidemic proportions. Or it could
mean both.

"It's the Internet," said Durham, an assistant district attorney for
Tuscaloosa County. "You can learn how to make it on the Internet. Anybody
can look it up. I could look it up right now and get a recipe for it."

With tougher laws on the books, the Tuscaloosa County District Attorney's
Office and law enforcement personnel have waged war against the drug, but
they fear it could become the latest drug epidemic, if it hasn't already.

The number of cases involving meth labs has increased dramatically in
Tuscaloosa County between 2001 and 2003, from nine cases to 86, after the
Legislature enacted tougher laws against the drug.

Before the law went into effect in September 2001, police had to catch meth
cooks with the lab and the finished product before they were able to charge
them with manufacturing of a controlled substance. Now, someone can be
charged with manufacturing if they possess two precursor chemicals, the
ingredients for making meth, and police can prove they intended to make the
drug with the chemicals.

Prosecutors are targeting dealers and cookers, while also trying to help
addicts recover.

Cocaine and marijuana remain the most common drugs in the county, but
because of its highly addictive nature, cheap cost and devastating effects,
prosecutors and law enforcement officers fear meth could soon replace crack
or marijuana as one of most prevalent illegal drugs.

"Methamphetamine is going to be bigger than crack. It's going to be more
devastating and more deadly, simply because these people can make it, and
they can get as much as they want as long as they can get the precursor
chemicals and everything together," said Eddie Alley, a prosecutor in the
Tuscaloosa County District Attorney's Office.

Complicating prosecutors' battle against the drug are budgetary woes, which
have become an increasing, unwanted presence in district attorneys' offices
throughout the state. The offices, along with other state agencies, face 18
percent budget cuts should Gov. Bob Riley's $1.2 billion tax package fail
to gain voter approval Sept. 9.

The Tuscaloosa County District Attorney's Office has been forced to lay off
several employees this year, including one prosecutor, and it could lose
$201,000 in state funding should the tax package fail in the referendum.

"If there are further cuts, they would hurt that much more," District
Attorney Tommy Smith said. "It would take that much longer to handle cases,
not that they won't be handled. Cases go through the funnel depending on
how big the funnel is. If they take longer to go through the funnel, the
people who get hurt are the victims, the people out on the street that get
hurt further by methamphetamine dope heads."

Durham said while an increasing number of her cases involve the
manufacturing of the drug, she has yet to prosecute one. The reason, she
said, is because most meth manufacturers plead guilty, because they were
caught with the chemicals or a working lab, and there is no way to escape
the charges.

Another reason that cases have yet to appear in court lies in the duties of
the State Department of Forensic Sciences, the agency responsible for
testing evidence taken from drug raids. That agency, too, is facing major
budget cuts while also dealing with a case backlog and understaffing.

While the criminal court battle against methamphetamine is gaining speed,
prosecutors continue to seek treatment options for addicts.

"That coin has two sides," Smith said. "There's prosecution but there's
also treatment."

Since the mid-1990s, the Tuscaloosa County Drug Court has helped drug users
without violent or major criminal charges beat their addictions through
counseling, drug screenings and group meetings. The defendants plead guilty
to the charges against them, usually involving possession of an illegal
drug. If they are successful in the program, they generally avoid prison.

The Tuscaloosa County District Attorney's office assigned drug court duties
to two prosecutors, Alley and Shannon Murphy. The prosecutors mainly handle
possession of cocaine or marijuana cases and occasional spin-off cases
involving the drug, such as minor thefts or check fraud.

While methamphetamine use has risen in the county since drug court was
launched, Alley and Murphy said they haven't seen many meth cases, as
police and felony prosecutors have witnessed. That's because people are
rarely caught simply holding meth. Most of the time, they're caught making
the highly addictive stimulant, which carries with it distribution and/or
manufacturing charges, rendering the defendants ineligible for drug court.
Alley said that because most meth users make the drugs themselves, the
problem could grow even worse.

"The biggest thing, in my perspective, from the methamphetamine/drug court
angle, is we're not able to help these people [because of the requirements
for entry into drug court]. I just wish there was something that could be
done," Alley said.