METH LAB RAIDS BIG SUCCESS

Seventy methamphetamine labs have been busted in the area since 1998, with
authorities nabbing more than 100 individuals, many of whom are serving
prison terms. Thirty-one of those meth raids were this year.

Some of the resultant cases are pending in state or federal court. Law
enforcement officials are using certain individuals as confidential
informants to try to snag drug traffickers higher up the ladder. Others
have been prosecuted, tried or pleaded and ended up with sentences ranging
from one to five years in state prison to 20 years or more in a federal prison.

Wood County Prosecutor Ginny Conley and Parkersburg Police Chief Robert
Newell praised the Parkersburg Narcotics and Violent Crime Task Force for
its efforts in the ongoing war against the highly addictive and dangerous
drug of choice - meth.

Police and prosecutors agree additional laws and stiffer penalties at the
state level, for first-time and repeat offenders, are needed for meth
crimes, to add to the police and prosecution's arsenal in the ongoing drug
wars.

Conley said many of the meth cases were referred to the federal level and
are handled there because penalties are stiffer than in Wood County Circuit
Court.

The state penalty for possession with the intent to deliver and for the
crime of conspiracy is one to five years in prison. The penalty for
manufacturing a controlled substance is one to 15 years and a $25,000 fine.
Possession alone is a misdemeanor, punishable by 90 days in jail if it's a
non-narcotic substance. Meth is classified as non-narcotic. A narcotic is
one such as cocaine or crack. Officials want to see the meth classification
changed.

Under the state's Controlled Substances Act, prosecutors can seek double
the penalty if they allege and can prove this is a second drug offense.
Drug convictions from other states can be used to seek the enhanced
penalty, said Assistant Prosecutor Jodie Boylen, who is assigned to handle
drug-related cases in Wood County Circuit Court.

"The penalties here (state court) are just too minor for the seriousness of
these offenses," Boylen said.

Defendants whose cases are handled through circuit court are charged,
sometimes by indictment, other times by information. An information is a
formal charge filed by a prosecutor that is not presented to a grand jury
for consideration. To be charged in an information, a defendant first has
to waive the right to have a grand jury consider the case.

During the last legislative session, Delegate John Ellem, R-Wood,
introduced a bill calling for an increase in the state penalty for meth
crimes from five to 15 years. But his measure failed to pass. Conley, who
is chairman of the executive council for the West Virginia Prosecuting
Attorney's Institute, is confident the issue will be raised again this session.

Conley said when she first brought up the need for changes in the state's
laws regarding meth to her fellow prosecutors, the rest of the state didn't
seem to be experiencing the same level of problem with the drug that Wood
County was facing. She said more recently, Kanawha and Cabell counties are
seeing the numbers, and she anticipates the state's prosecutors will make
it more of a priority to get stronger legislation in the 2003 session.

Federal penalties, depending on the specific offense a defendant is
convicted of and the amount of drug involved, can net traffickers from five
to 40 years and fines up to $2 million. A second offense can mean 10 years
to life and fines up to $4 million. Cases usually take six to eight months
to get on the court docket in the federal system, officials said.

Prosecutors and police want to see a separate offense created on the state
level for individuals in possession of the ingredients for a meth cook. The
ingredients used to make meth are legal. It's not an offense to purchase
them, but officials feel giving the police more latitude to stop the cook
before it starts would better ensure public safety.

"Possession of certain, specific ingredients used to make meth should be an
offense. When you find individuals possessing items that are key to the
manufacture of meth, we should be able to charge them for that," Conley
said. She would like to see such a law mirror Ohio's statute. "It has to do
with possession of certain, specific key ingredients for the manufacture of
meth being enough."

"Under current law, you might have someone buying 20 packs of products
containing aphedrine, and you know they have all the other ingredients
right now to make meth, but we have to wait," Newell said.

Many times officers are entering a residence where there is a cook in
progress, increasing the danger to police making the bust, as well as those
who live nearby, because meth can cause fires and explosions, officials said.

Newell said individuals who are addicted often turn to making it to keep
themselves supplied with the drug.

"They often turn to cooking it because it is so highly addictive. Many of
the ones cooking it are addicted themselves, and that's why we see the
repeat offenders in meth," Newell said.

Conley said there are times when those involved, not main perpetrators,
might be enlisted by police as confidential informants, to help police "get
bigger defendants," those higher up in the drug network.

Conley agreed many of the defendants prosecuted are repeat offenders,
including some who have been users of other drugs before trying meth.

"That's one thing we see about people who use meth, get charged, serve
their time, get back out and do it again. It's such a highly addictive
drug, and you see a big problem with that. Addiction is hard enough to beat
on any substance, but with a drug like meth, it makes it even difficult,"
Conley said.