Pubdate: Sun, 29 Feb 2004
Source: Tennessean, The (TN)
Copyright: 2004 The Tennessean
Contact:  http://www.tennessean.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/447
Author: Leon Alligood
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

ATTACKING THE METH TRADE

While TennCare's budget crunch may be the legislature's most visible
statewide problem, the methamphetamine epidemic in the state's rural
counties has attracted considerable attention, too.

No fewer than 31 meth-related bills have been proposed. The most common
point of attack is on two fronts: increasing punishment for offenders and
putting restrictions on the sale of raw products used to make the homemade
drug.

''The biggest thing is that we are doing something,'' said Rep. Judd
Matheny, R-Tullahoma, who has proposed some of the most far-reaching
legislation. His bill is named the Tennessee Comprehensive Methamphetamine
Prevention, Treatment and Control Act of 2004.

A former policeman and state narcotics agent, Matheny said he watched as
methamphetamine became the drug of choice throughout the Cumberland Plateau
and adjacent counties in the early 1990s.

''I literally watched this epidemic be born. We still don't have any
stronger laws than we did 10 years ago to deal with the problem,'' said
Matheny.

Meth, also known as ''poor man's cocaine,'' has several advantages to users
over other mind-bending substances such as heroin, cocaine or prescription
pills. The drug can be cheaply made in a kitchen ''laboratory'' using common
ingredients such as cold remedy pills like Sudafed, lye, acetone and
muriatic acid.

Consequently, there's no plant to grow and harvest and no middleman sellers
with whom to dicker. Most convenient of all, the ingredients can be
purchased at a variety of locations, from farm supply outlets to discount
stores.

''I don't believe, until we make it harder on the pocketbook and throw more
folks in jail, we're not going to prevent this problem,'' Matheny said.

The legislator's proposed bill would place methamphetamine on par with
cocaine for purposes of sentencing. That could mean an additional eight
years on a prison term and higher fines than would be allowed under current
law.

Other legislators also have proposed enhanced sentences if property is
damaged by fire from a lab explosion, an all-too-frequent occurrence,
according to law enforcement. Others, like state Rep. Frank Buck,
D-Dowelltown, want sentences enhanced if a gun or deadly weapon are found at
a meth lab site.

''If you take that crap long enough, it'll screw your mind up something
awful. You put somebody with a weapon in that screwy mental state, God knows
what they're liable to do,'' Buck said.

Perhaps the most far-reaching proposal, however, is Matheny's mandatory
90-jail term for first-time offenders plus court-ordered substance abuse
counseling based on a curriculum designed by the American Society for
Addiction Medicine, a research group based in Chevy Chase, Md. Its members
are physicians who treat addicts.

Matheny said he wants to reach the recreational user before addiction takes
hold. ''We'll have a chance of saving that person's life,'' he said, citing
statistics indicating meth addicts have a high recidivism rate.

Meanwhile, state Rep. Jere Hargrove, D-Cookeville, has joined in support of
proposed bills limiting the sale of the raw ingredients of a meth recipe. In
particular, over-the-counter drug products containing ephedrine or
pseudoephedrine, the most important ingredient in a meth ''recipe,'' are
targeted.

Earlier this year, the Cookeville City Council established sales limits in
that city for the cold remedies because the problem has become so prevalent.

''It's a sad reality of life when you realize you lead the state for
something like this. We're cursed over here in the Upper Cumberland. This
area is extra sensitive to the problem, and it starts with the building
blocks. That's why we start with the ingredients,'' Hargrove, a former
prosecutor, said.

Under one of the proposed laws, consumers 18 and older could not buy more
than three packages of any product containing the chemicals, which are found
in popular cold remedies. Sales to minors under 18 would be prohibited, but
clerks under 18 would be allowed to ring up the purchases.

Another sore spot is children living in homes containing meth labs.

Matheny's bill provides for an additional charge of aggravated child abuse
to be levied if a minor is living in a home where a lab is raided. That,
too, would result in more jail time, especially if the child is under the
age of six.

State Sen. Tommy Kilby, D-Wartburg, said he is concerned greatly about the
exposure of children to the chemical witches' brew of fumes created by a
batch of cooking meth. Studies have shown children suffer from respiratory
problems and developmental delays if exposure is protracted.

''If you hurt yourself, that's one thing, but when you start hurting people
who cannot control their own destiny, then I think there needs to be a
stiffer penalty,'' Kilby said.

He has proposed changing the state child abuse laws to give more jail time
to adults who make meth while a child is present. ''It would go from, like,
a three-to eight-year sentence to an eight-to 20-year sentence,'' Kilby
said.

Matheny and Kilby are just two of several legislators, mostly from rural
areas, who have meth bills on this session's agenda. There are so many
legislators who have their names attached to the bills as primary or
co-sponsors - 16 in the House and 15 in the Senate - that a joint ad hoc
committee will meet tomorrow afternoon to hash out redundancies and combine
legislation.

State Sen. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, chairman of the committee, is hopeful a
meth plan that is both comprehensive yet does not jolt the state's already
tenuous financial condition can be crafted from the bills proposed.

''I don't know what we'll do, but it's going to have to be fiscally neutral.
I do know that,'' Cohen said.

Therein is where the merit of every meth proposal will be scrutinized and
where many will likely wither for lack of funding. Eighteen of the bills
call for meth offenders to spend more time behind bars.

Of course, jail time for offenders is not free to taxpayers, who pay dearly
for the security of knowing scofflaws are locked up.

When the average cost for the state Department of Correction to house and
feed a prisoner, $44.01 per day, is considered along with the fact that
state and county jails are reaching maximum holding levels, Cohen said it's
unfeasible to enhance sentences for those convicted of meth offenses without
a tradeoff.

One proposed exchange would reduce the penalty for marijuana so that
enhanced terms can be given for meth cases.

''You estimate how many people-days would not be used in the prison system
for marijuana sales, and then you have those days to be allocated to people
put in prison for methamphetamine production,'' Cohen said. A ''people-day''
in this context is how many offenders, on average, would be in custody for a
day on marijuana charges.

But Cohen said he doubted if society, much less legislators, was ready to
make that choice.

''People are afraid of being soft on marijuana,'' he said.

''But the only way to pass a bill in this fiscal climate is you take certain
people out of prison and you put other people in who are a higher priority
for our society.''

Matheny, the former drug agent turned state representative, noted he had
seriously considered raising the misdemeanor possession threshold for
marijuana from its current half-ounce status to eight ounces, as several
other states have done.

''But what I found was that what we would gain would be a drop in the bucket
compared to the amount we need to fund a meth bill adequately,'' Matheny
said.

''I'm not going to say I would opposed it if we could work something out
that would truly be better, but I don't see it right now at this point.''
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