Pubdate: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 Source: Charleston Daily Mail (WV) Copyright: 2004 Charleston Daily Mail Contact: http://www.dailymail.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/76 Author: George Gannon Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) ATTACKING METH MENACE AT THE SOURCE Restricting Sales Of Over-The-Counter Cold Medicine Is One Way To Curb Abuse Politicians bandy about many different ways to deal with the methamphetamine problem plaguing the nation. They claim stopping cooks from getting their hands on materials used to manufacture the drug is one way. A more assertive public education campaign is also an option. But what many officials fail to realize is the full force of the drug's destructive power. Not only is it frightfully dangerous to cook, a meth addiction can destroy a person. Putnam County's meth lab busts have gone up every year for the last four years. Police there have already busted 30 labs this year, two more than they did in all of 2003. Mark Sorsaia, the county's prosecuting attorney, says his office works hard to bring cooks and users to justice and the state has made some headway by passing legislation that makes it harder for cooks to get what they need, but ending the problem isn't that simple. "We passed a law in West Virginia to make it illegal to possess the materials to make meth, and there are ways to limit the supply of the drug needed to cook," Sorsaia said. "Those are worthy of discussion, but there is not going to be a magic pill that solves our problem." Like many states, West Virginia does not have bottomless coffers. Sorsaia said both the Department of Corrections and the State Police are working on shoestring budgets. Because the State Police have less money to work with, their crime lab has been understaffed and they can't process evidence collected at labs as fast as prosecutors would like. Sorsaia contends the addiction is so crippling, even if a user is tried, convicted and jailed, the first thing many do once they are released is try to score a fix. Though Putnam County is thought to be a hotbed for meth activity, Sorsaia attributes that to the aggressive policing. He thinks the problem could actually be worse in other places, but authorities there aren't looking for labs. Meth is also a factor in other crimes. Users mug people and break into homes and cars trying to steal something they can sell, investigators say. The issue has recently popped up in the presidential election. Vice presidential candidate John Edwards held a conference call earlier this month detailing how John Kerry's administration would address the problem. Edwards said the best way to deal with meth labs is to stop cooks from getting the precursors. According to statistics provided by the campaign, the number of meth labs busted over the last four years has increased from 8,971 in 2000 to 16,068 last year. To tackle the problem Edwards presented a plan that would prevent the production and sale of the drug, prosecute cooks more severely, expand education and treatment efforts and clean up hazardous labs. The thrust of the plan would be to prevent the cooks from getting access to psuedophedrine, a chemical found in most over-the-counter cold medicines and the drug's main ingredient. The plan would limit a consumer to "two standard packages of pseudoephedrine-containing medicine per day." Local and state officials would enforce the mandate. "We want to make it harder to get these cold medications in bulk," Edwards said. Cleaning a busted lab is also a focal point of the plan. Flammable, toxic chemicals are a byproduct of the process and they are expensive to dispose of. Lt Steve Neddo of the Metro Drug Unit said the federal government currently cleans the labs, but there have been rumors that may stop. The byproduct of a cook is nasty, toxic stuff and the disposal of it requires trained hazardous material teams. "Trust me, cities and counties don't have the money to deal with that kind of clean up," Neddo said. A plan Neddo would like to see enacted is one similar to one recently adopted in Oklahoma. The law's main component put a monthly 9-gram limit on pseudoephedrine purchases by any one customer. Neddo argued that a package of cold medicine only has about .10 grams of pseudoephedrine per pill. It wouldn't stop people with a cold or sinus infection from getting medicine, but it would limit someone buying the drug in bulk. "That allows you more than you should ever take," he said. The Oklahoma law would also put the cold medicines behind glass and people would have to show identification at the time of purchase. Mary Diamond, a spokeswoman for President Bush, said the president's plan to battle meth has been a major success. "Even Kerry and Edwards acknowledge on their own Web site that President Bush has made this a priority," she said, citing statistics on the site that show there has been a 79 percent increase in the number of labs busted since 2000. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin