LOCAL LEGISLATORS ATTEND METH LAB SEMINAR

State Sen. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge and state Reps. Dennis Ferguson,
D-Kingston, and Russell Johnson, R-Loudon, attended a seminar on
methamphetamine labs that was presented Tuesday in one of the legislative
hearing rooms in Nashville.

The seminar, conducted by former Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent
and state Rep. Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma, along with a physician, criminal
investigators, and the director of the Southeastern Tennessee Drug Task
Force, showed legislators and news media the manner in which clandestine
meth labs are constructed and how the volatile, illegal drug is manufactured.

According to a news release from the Senate, McNally, a pharmacist, noted
how few household and readily obtainable products are needed to manufacture
methamphetamine.

"The problem is that anyone can buy the necessary chemicals at co-ops and
Wal-Mart," the release quotes McNally as saying. "The instructions are also
available on the Internet. Because anyone can make it, this is a serious
and dangerous problem."

McNally, along with Ferguson and Johnson, talked with law enforcement
personnel, meth lab prosecution experts and the task force director about
their meth lab bill, House Bill 876/Senate Bill 1272. The bill sponsored by
the three legislators "is designed to combat the proliferation of meth labs
and methamphetamine production across Tennessee," Johnson stated.

"The number of identified meth labs has increased over 50 percent in less
than two years and we recognize that the societal costs of the illegal drug
is a pervasive problem, especially in more rural communities like Roane,
Loudon and Monroe counties where meth labs are predominately located,"
Johnson stated.

"The Sheriff's Departments in these counties have been actively pursuing
the detection and destruction of meth labs and arrest rates are high. We
want to help our sheriffs find these people and put the drugs off the
streets," added Ferguson.

The labs themselves are considered hazardous materials so there is a
tremendous cleanup cost associated with a meth lab "bust." The bill
sponsored by Ferguson and Johnson and McNally would tax this cleanup cost
to the criminal defendant to help recoup this taxpayer expense through
restitution.

The bill also increases the penalties for methamphetamine production to
afford district attorneys the ability to better prosecute these cases. A
state law sponsored by McNally last year made it easy to remove children
exposed to methamphetamine by defining such cases as severe child abuse.
More information on the bill is available at www.legislature.state.tn.us.
using the bill number HB876 or SB1272.