Pubdate: Sun, 06 Feb 2005 Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) Copyright: 2005 The Commercial Appeal Contact: http://www.commercialappeal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/95 Author: Melissa Nelson, Associated Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) LAWMAKERS STRUGGLE WITH METH USE Ark. Seeks To Cut Labs' Numbers By Regulating A Key Ingredient LITTLE ROCK - Among issues under debate at the Arkansas Capitol this legislative session, none have included drama like the fight to rid the state of methamphetamine. From tales of young children with their throats and stomachs permanently scarred by drinking sulfuric acid used in meth labs, to stories of toddlers addicted to the drug because it entered their systems under their fingernails while crawling on meth-contaminated floors, stories of the drug's devastation fill committee hearings. A bill to lock pseudoephedrine, the drug's key ingredient, behind pharmacy counters and strictly regulate its distribution seems certain of passage and is being touted by Arkaansas Atty. Gen. Mike Beebe and others as a major blow to methamphetamine manufacturers. But at the same time, legislators are considering rolling back tough sentences for some first- and second-time meth offenders caught with smaller quantities of the drug. Advocates of the sentencing changes say the state simply cannot keep up with a prison population that is swelling from the methamphetamine epidemic. "We've got to do something. We can spend $170,000 to keep someone in prison for eight years, or we can spend $20,000 to send them to rehab for 12 months. It's as simple as that," said Sen. Jack Critcher, D-Batesville, who sponsored the sentencing bill. The Arkansas Sheriffs' Association and the Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys Association oppose Critcher's legislation, which passed a Senate committee last week. The bill would exempt first-or second-time offenders in possession of less than five grams of the drug from a law that requires those convicted of making meth with the intent to distribute it to serve at least 70 percent of their prison sentence. Chuck Lange, executive director of the Arkansas Sheriff's Association, said sheriffs' deputies and police are in a daily war with methamphetamine manufacturers who often use surveillance cameras and automatic weapons to protect their labs. "We've been real fortunate not to have lost a lot of deputies and a lot of city police," he told a Senate committee. Fear of violent meth addicts and manufacturers is one reason Arkansas pharmacists long resisted efforts to lock meth ingredients behind pharmacy counters, said Sen. Percy Malone, D-Arkadelphia, a sponsor of the bill to restrict pseudoephedrine. "We are now putting this street drug of choice in the pharmacy. It is putting this drug that people are addicted to in the prescription department," said Malone, a pharmacist himself who began pushing for the change in 1997. In committee testimony, representatives of pharmacists groups said they agreed to support Malone's bill this year after seeing the results of an Oklahoma law. Ten months after the law took effect, meth lab seizures in Oklahoma are down more than 80 percent. But Malone said he fears the drug epidemic could circumvent state legislators' efforts. He said experts expect a surge of Mexican-manufactured methamphetamine as states' laws catch up with domestic manufacturers. Malone said he began his push for legislation to curb meth after drug task force members showed him pictures of methamphetamine labs with baby bottles and pacifiers in them. "The driving force for me was learning how devastating this is for the children of Arkansas," he said. For Critcher, widely considered the Legislature's methamphetamine expert, his push to legislate the meth epidemic came from running a grocery store in his tiny northeast Arkansas hometown of Grubbs. Along with Critcher's bill to exempt first- and second-time meth manufacturers caught with less than five grams from the 70 percent law, he also has proposed a bill to make meth offenders sentenced under the 70 percent law eligible to have their sentences reduced for good behavior. Dina Tyler, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections, said the changes to the law might have a better chance of passing this session because of growing pressure on the prison system. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek