Pubdate: Fri, 12 Sep 2003
Source: Shawnee News-Star (OK)
Copyright: 2003 The Shawnee News-Star
Contact:  http://www.onlineshawnee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/412

NEW TOOLS TO FIGHT METH WAR PROPOSED

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Radical steps may be needed to stem Oklahoma's 
spreading methamphetamine manufacturing problem, lawmakers were told 
Thursday. "It's a very difficult subject, one that's going like a wildfire 
in Oklahoma," said Rep. John Nance, R-Bethany, who requested the interim 
study on the problem.

The study is being conducted by the House Criminal Justice Committee, whose 
chairman, Rep. Paul Roan, D-Tishomingo, is a former Highway Patrol trooper.

Law enforcement officials testified that a strictly law-and-order approach 
to the problem will not work because most Oklahoma meth makers are addicted 
and not making the drug for a profit.

Lonnie Wright, director of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Narcotics and 
Dangerous Drugs, said bold approaches to the problem are needed.

Wright suggested expanding treatment programs and placing tighter controls 
on common cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, the chemical most used 
in meth manufacturing.

He also said lawmakers could look at developing a civil commitment 
procedure for small-time meth manufacturers, an idea of the narcotics 
bureau's general counsel, Scott Rowland.

Under such a system, meth makers would be confined after their arrest for 
weeks or months so they could be detoxified.

Wright said the addiction is so strong that even the death penalty would 
not be deterrent. Meth makers do not now qualify for drug courts, which 
have had significant success in getting drug offenders to turn their lives 
around, he noted.

Wright said pseudoephedrine is "the single product that is responsible for 
this" and tighter controls are needed, even though they would be fought by 
pharmaceutical companies.

He said he would like information on how many of the estimated 4,000 
products using the chemical are suitable for use in the meth-making process.

Nance warned lawmakers to be "very sensitive" in how they present proposed 
changes in the drug policy to the public so they are not accused of being 
soft on crime.

Calling himself "a hardcore old narcotics agent," Wright said he was 
anything but soft on crime but now understands that current policies aren't 
stopping the spread of meth labs that are endangering the public's health.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart