NICKLES HEARS GROUP'S CONCERNS ABOUT METH PROBLEM IN COUNTY

"This is so darn depressing," U.S. Sen. Don Nickles said Tuesday
after listening to a group of Oklahomans talk about the
methamphetamine problem in Oklahoma County. "I hoped this would have
been more positive," Nickles, R-Ponca City, said at a meeting at his
Oklahoma City office. "We need to be more invigorating in combating
this problem. This is a serious problem."

Nickles offered to help Oklahoma. However, he warned the more than a
dozen city, county, state and federal officials present he doesn't
want to federalize the issue.

"The magnitude of this problem is growing every year," Nickles said.
"What we see here is a big problem that is not going to go away.

"We need to be more energetic about it."

Nickles requested Tuesday's meeting with organizers of the Oklahoma
County Methamphetamine Summit, which will be July 25.

Oklahoma is one of four states chosen to play host to a summit this
summer to find ways to prevent and reduce methamphetamine use.
Oklahoma County got the summit because of its serious methamphetamine
problem.

In Oklahoma City, the number of seized methamphetamine labs has
jumped from 10 in 1997 to 192 last year. Investigators seized 1,193
methamphetamine labs last year throughout Oklahoma.

Capt. Mike Hoskins, who heads the Oklahoma City Police Department's
narcotic's unit, said about 80 percent of the time they find children
are present or live where labs are seized.

U.S. Attorney Robert McCampbell, of the Western District in Oklahoma,
said 800 children were present at labs busted in the past two years
nationally.

"Think about that ... thousands and thousands of children are present
and around these labs," McCampbell said.

The filing of meth-related charges has increased 40 percent in
Oklahoma County, Hoskins said.

District Attorney Wes Lane told Nickles those convicted of
manufacturing methamphetamine are looking at prison time that isn't
negotiable.

"Considering the danger people are put in, whether it is police
officers or people sent in to deconstruct those labs or family
members," Lane said, "this is a tremendous hazardous process."

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, National Crime Prevention
Council and Community Oriented Policing Services have joined with
Lane to develop a plan to prevent and reduce methamphetamine use.

The goal of the summit is to create a comprehensive plan for
methamphetamine prevention, treatment, enforcement, education and
continuing care needs for the Oklahoma County area.

The children speak to the complexity of the meth problem, Colleen
Minson, of the National Crime Prevention Council, told Nickles.

"The children not only have to be decontaminated and treated," Minson
said, "we found in meth labs there are almost always guns present and
pornography, and some of them have been sexually abused as well.
There are all kinds of child-endangered issues."