BILL UPS METH LAB ANTE

Making Drugs Around Kids Could Bring Felony Charge

Parents who expose their children to methamphetamine manufacturing could be
charged with a felony under a bill given first-round passage on Friday.

The Colorado House cited this week's bust at a Broomfield day-care center as
another reason to pass House Bill 1004, sponsored by Rep. Pam Rhodes,
R-Thornton.

It is a companion bill to House Bill 1169, which expands the definition of
child abuse and neglect to include incidents in which youngsters are in a
home where illegal drugs are being manufactured. HB 1169 already has been
signed by the governor.

The two bills are part of a package of bills targeting the growing meth
problem in Colorado.

The highly toxic ingredients used to make methamphetamine create a vapor
that permeates walls, children's clothes, food and even their toys, she
said. Children found in such homes often have respiratory problems,
including asthma, Rhodes said.

"The risk you are posing to children warrants felony child abuse," she said
of meth-making parents.

If convicted, a person could serve four to 12 years in prison and be fined
$3,000 to $750,000.

Police arrested a 27-year-old man this week for manufacturing meth at a
Broomfield home that his mother uses to care for five children. HB 1004,
which passed on a voice vote, faces one more vote in the House and then
moves to the Senate.

In other work, the House gave a preliminary nod to a bill that would weaken
a labor union law.

House Bill 1209, sponsored by Rep. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, would
allow workers who choose not to join a union to live without fear or
reprisals from other union members.

"It's about individual freedom versus union monopoly," said Rep. Mike May,
R-Parker.

Democrats fought the bill, saying it would repeal the 60-year-old Labor
Peace Act, which allows for open negotiations between an employer and a
union on organizing.

Colorado workers' average annual pay is $37,950, a figure that would be
lowered if unions can't organize, said Rep. Mike Cerbo, D-Denver, a labor
leader. That would also mean lower payroll taxes for the state, he said.

"It weakens unions," Cerbo said of HB 1209. "It would weaken their
bargaining position. It would be less money in Colorado consumers' pockets."

HB 1209 will undergo one more vote in the House and then move on to the
Senate.