METH LAW IS UNENFORCEABLE, ATTORNEY SAYS

PAINTSVILLE - An attorney for a Paintsville man charged with manufacturing
methamphetamines is trying to prove state laws that established the offense
are unconstitutional. Paintsville attorney James Barrett, the
court-appointed attorney for Johnny F. Copley, filed a motion April 1 in
Johnson Circuit Court for an order to declare portions of KRS 218A.1432 -
the 1998 statute that established manufacturing methamphetamines as a crime
- - unconstitutional. Copley was charged in July 2001 with manufacturing
methamphetamines after state police and Sheriff Bill Witten executed a
search warrant at the Highland Avenue home of Copley's father, James Milton
Copley, who was also charged with trafficking drugs near a school. Both
cases are scheduled for jury trials in Johnson Circuit Court on April 16.
Barrett's motion says that the law pertaining to Johnny Copley's charge is
unconstitutional "on the grounds that the statute as written is vague and
overly broad and that its enforcement violates due process and equal
protection clauses as well as the prohibition against cruel and unusual
punishment." "In the case at hand," court records say, "the Commonwealth
asserts that (Copley) possessed certain illegal products which were capable
of being chemically altered and combined with other similarly altered legal
products which would then result in the production of one or more chemicals
which could be used in manufacturing methamphetamine." Barrett's motion
also states that "every law-abiding citizen in the (state) is in possession
of one or more of the items which law enforcement asserts is evidence of
the manufacture of methamphetamine." For instance, the motion notes, a
mechanic who possessed a case of engine cleaner, a bottle of Drano and a
box of sudephedrine (a common sinus medication) could also be charged with
manufacturing the deadly drug. The defense attorney's motion also cites
Section 2 of the Kentucky Constitution which says, "absolute and arbitrary
power over the lives, liberty and property of freemen exists nowhere in a
republic, not even in the largest majority." As for the local attorney's
assertion that the law violates state and federal prohibitions of cruel and
excessive punishment, the motion notes that possession of certain
ingredients for the production of methamphetamines can result in a ten to
20-year jail sentence; while possession of crack carries up to a five-year
sentence and cocaine traffickers would serve no more than ten years. A
judge had not ruled on the motion as of Thursday afternoon, but a ruling
will likely be issued before the start of Copley's trial next week.