TOUGHER METH LAW SOUGHT SOUGHT

By Charles Shumaker STAFF WRITER Some law enforcement officials are looking
to a new state law to make it easier to prosecute and punish
methamphetamine makers.

The law, set to take effect next month, more clearly explains the charges
police can file against someone caught making methamphetamine, said Putnam
County assistant prosecutor Erik Goes.

Prosecutors in Putnam County already prosecute suspects with meth-related
crimes, using either an existing state drug possession charge or a separate
attempted felony charge.

Goes compared the attempt charge to attempted murder. When a suspect takes
any step to kill someone else, they are charged with attempted murder, a
felony.

Attempting to manufacture methamphetamine includes having the ingredients
and taking a step toward making the highly addictive drug. Goes said
prosecutors sometimes use that to present cases.

This year, 14 cases in Putnam County have been tried or resulted in an
indictment, Goes said.

There is not an existing state law that specifically deals with
methamphetamine or "clandestine" drug labs.

The new law will include a mandatory two-to 10-year prison sentence for
anyone convicted of operating a meth-producing lab.

"I think it makes it easier," Goes said. "It eliminates some of the
ambiguities."

In Putnam and several other counties, prosecutors have successfully
indicted and convicted methamphetamine cooks using existing laws.

Charleston Police Lt. Steve Neddo, commander of the Metro Drug Unit, said
his officers have filed charges in Kanawha County, but they have never had
a methamphetamine producer indicted.

"You file it and hope something happens with it," Neddo said.

During a Monday lab seizure, Charleston officers went to the Scraggs Drive
home of Jeremiah L. Burgess, 22. Burgess' in-laws called police because
they were worried about the man's young children living in the house while
he allegedly produced methamphetamine.

Officers reported that they found a working meth lab, but Burgess was gone,
said Cpl. A. E. Payne.

A magistrate court warrant was issued, but officers have yet to find
Burgess. Officer had visited the same address at least once before and
found Burgess operating a methamphetamine lab. He was charged that time,
but never indicted, Neddo said.

Even federal prosecution wouldn't help in such cases because there isn't an
initial drug charge for federal prosecutors to begin with, Neddo said.

"We need these first-time convictions," Neddo said.

Neddo said the problem in Kanawha County is probably a difference in
reading the law between prosecutors and police.

"We're very hopeful that this law makes it easier," Neddo said.

Kanawha County prosecutors were unavailable for comment late Tuesday afternoon.