WOOD'S DRUG WOES IGNORED

Undercover agents had been raiding rinky-dink methamphetamine labs at the
rate of once a week in Wood County.

Narcs barged into motel rooms and kitchens with disturbing regularity to
haul off the pots, pans and commonplace ingredients used to cook up a batch
of what the Justice Department terms the nation's fastest- growing drug menace.

No one knew why meth plagued Wood County like no other place.

Freshman Delegate John Ellem, a Parkersburg lawyer, reflected community
concerns in legislation that would have boosted West Virginia criminal
penalties for making and selling meth near a school.

His bill was ignored.

That was last year.

So far this week in Wood County, no mom-and-pop meth labs have been seized,
but it's still early.

The Parkersburg Violent Crimes and Narcotics Task Force has made 10 such
raids in 2002, matching 2001's torrid, 51-mission pace.

Little has changed. Once again, Ellem's bill has been ignored.

"The rest of the state is not seeing this the way we are," said Wood County
Prosecutor Ginny Conley. "We've seen an extraordinary amount of labs. This
is a very dangerous drug when it's used, but it's also dangerous when it's
made."

Making meth is like making candy; there are countless recipes. But all
involve a risky process in which heat is applied to a brew of things like
Drano, match heads, engine starting fluid and over-the-counter cold
remedies containing ephedrine, the magic ingredient in convenience
manufacturing.

People try it, like it, crave it and can die from it.

The state penalty for making and selling meth is one to five years in
prison. Think 10 months plus good time.

The feds take a harsher view, with a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence for
manufacture or possession of more than 50 grams.

Bill Charnock, executive director of the West Virginia Prosecuting
Attorneys Institute, acknowledged Parkersburg has an unusual problem.

"If someone mentions meth, I automatically think of Wood County," he said.

Parkersburg Police Chief Bob Newell said most of the people making meth are
hooked.

Newell said the drug task force, formed in 1985, works steadily at the
problem. It is composed of State Police, sheriff's deputies and
Parkersburg, Vienna and Williamstown police officers.

Perhaps it's the effectiveness of the aggressive and well-established
narcotics unit that makes it seem as if Wood County has an out-of-
proportion problem. It may look worse simply because it's documented.

In any case, legislation originating suddenly last week in the Senate
Judiciary Committee and quickly approved on the floor would address the
meth problem statewide by making it harder to obtain large quantities of
cold pills, the source of ephedrine.

A retailer who sold more than four packages of a product containing
ephedrine in one transaction could face a $250 fine.

It would have little effect on Wood County, where retailers are already
acting on their own to alert authorities whenever somebody tries to buy
more packets of cold pills than they seem to have sinuses.