Pubdate: Sun, 28 Dec 2003
Source: Sunday Gazette-Mail (WV)
Copyright: 2003, Sunday Gazette-Mail
Contact:  http://sundaygazettemail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1404
Author: Charles Shumaker
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/sudafed
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/coleman+fuel 
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/heet 

METH LAW TARGETS INGREDIENTS, NOT DRUG

Methamphetamine requires the simplest of ingredients. All of which
are easily paid for at drug, hardware or department stores in most
neighborhoods.

Once the various pieces are placed together and cooked the right way,
it completes a dangerously enticing puzzle that is wreaking havoc with
police and lawyers.

In courtrooms, methamphetamine is a popular term as
well.

Suspects are being charged under a new state law that allows officers
to arrest anyone possessing ingredients used to create the drug
because they are considered to be operating or attempting to operate a
clandestine drug lab.

Suspects have been pulled from homes and cars used as suspected drug
labs.

Inside those places, officers have recovered a collage of ingredients,
from matchbooks to heating fuels to over-the-counter allergy medicine.

Prosecutors in several counties have used the law to charge numerous
criminals with simply possessing the ingredients that make meth.

In Putnam County, prosecutor Mark Sorsaia says meth is consuming most
of law enforcement's hours. Numerous arrests have been made and
several guilty pleas have been accepted under the possession law, said
Erik Goes, a Putnam assistant prosecutor.

Other counties, such as Wood County, have also used the law for adding
charges to meth producers who have the drug labs.

Numerous Kanawha County arrests have also been made, though no one has
been indicted on the new charges.

Chief deputy assistant prosecutor Phil Morrison said Kanawha could
expect some indictments as early as next month. He said it shouldn't
be difficult to prove that someone intended to use the materials to
cook the drug.

Since the law took effect in June, it's been easier for police and
prosecutors to focus on meth production by charging anyone with
operating a drug lab simply because they have some
ingredients.

The law does not specify which ingredients or combination of
ingredients violate the law.

Regardless, it appears to be heading the dangerous drug lab problem
off at the pass, law enforcement officials say.

The new law created a sentence of two to 10 years in prison for anyone
caught with the ingredients with the intent to create methamphetamine,
an increase over scattered existing laws used to charge people previously.

Criminal defense lawyers might argue that clients had evidence seized
unlawfully or the evidence that was seized wasn't going to be used in
a drug lab.

Ben Bailey, chairman of the State Bar criminal law committee, examined
the state's new clandestine drug lab law and said he sees some
possible issues with it.

"It certainly looks like it could have some serious vagueness
problems," Bailey said. "The potential is there for someone who knows
nothing about those labs, but who innocently has some of the legal
components for them, to be snared."

When it comes to charging people with trying to make meth, the key
words are "common sense," Sorsaia said.

"We aren't getting people with one box of Sudafed. We're catching
people with a whole case," he said, referring to one of the drug's
ingredients.

Suspects are usually caught with excessive amounts of the
ingredients.

Lt. Steve Neddo, chief of the Metro Drug Unit, said his officers
wouldn't target just anyone buying a combination of materials used for
the drug.

"Sure, we're using common sense when we're doing this. How many people
go out here and buy three cans of Coleman fuel and 20 cans of Heet at
once?" Neddo said, also referring to some of the most suspicious
purchases for meth makers.

Concerns over innocent people getting caught up in the middle
shouldn't deter the use of the state's new law, Goes said.

"They [officers] have to believe a crime has been committed," Goes
said.

But Bailey said intent appears to be an unclear aspect of the law.
"When all the ingredients are that common, there is a risk of an
overbroad application," he said.

Two men in Charleston were recently arrested after shopping in various
stores in Kanawha City, looking for ingredients. Their spree didn't
last long and became suspicious because they targeted certain products
at various stores.

Last month, suspicious Wal-Mart employees in Nitro reported a man who
had filled his shopping cart with meth ingredients. A call to Nitro
police brought out an officer who asked to search the man's shopping
bags.

The man consented to the search, and meth-producing ingredients were
found. He was arrested and charged.

Police are allowed to search cars, bags or people if there is probable
cause. Sorsaia could not recall a case where an officer questioned and
searched someone wrongfully.

Neddo said he orders his officers to charge anyone they can in the
meth trade.

"If a meth lab is discovered, we're going to arrest someone," he
said.

It's not always been as easy for officers. Prior to the new law,
officers had to find finished methamphetamine to charge anyone with a
crime that would result in significant punishment.

Finding the finished product was nearly impossible because most users
don't make it to store or sell. Most of the time, the drug is used
soon after it's created, Sorsaia said.

The drug is highly toxic, addictive and volatile.

One wrong move in a meth lab can cause an explosion and fire with an
aftermath that can poison or kill.

This was the case in Charleston when members of the Metro Drug Unit
were called to a house fire on Crescent Road earlier this year.

Firefighters came across the working fire, controlled it and then
discovered evidence of the clandestine drug lab. It was one of seven
such fires the drug unit has responded to so far in 2003.

In 2002, the drug unit, which was formed to purchase drugs from
informants to lure larger drug activity and not to respond to house
fires, responded to no such house fires.

"We've responded to more fire calls in the past year than ever," Neddo
said.

Neddo said he is encouraged that the new law could help prevent drug
labs from ever reaching the point when they are dangerous to the meth
cookers as well as people around the sites of the labs.
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