Pubdate: Tue, 03 May 2005
Source: Record, The (Troy, NY)
Copyright: 2005sThe Record
Contact:  http://www.troyrecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1724

METHAMPHETAMINE PRODUCTION SHOULD BE A FELONY

A person is caught who possesses the chemicals, other raw materials and
equipment to manufacture a highly addictive, always-devastating and
sometimes-fatal, illegal drug that reaps a huge profit for manufacturer and
dealer.

That person is in a big heap of trouble, right?

Wrong, - at least in this state.

Methamphetamine - known on the street by such names as speed, crank and
chalk - is one of those drugs that gives an instant high that carries users
away on the wings of false euphoria.

To reach this state, blood vessels dilate, the heart races to a dangerous
beat and the user is risking hyperthermia, convulsions, heart attack,
permanent Parkinson's-like tremors and/or irreparable stroke.

And it doesn't matter whether the person is healthy and in good shape.

It also doesn't matter whether the person is strong-willed and says he,
"just wants to try it once."

Although many people can get away with a brief flirtation with the
crystalline poison, even more people will end up as street criminals,
looking for money to feed the habit. Others will make it into rehabilitation
and go back to a normal life. Still others will get a close-up tour of a
hospital morgue.

Yet in this state, the ghouls who prey on weakness in others are not liable
to felony charges, making the prospect of huge, easy profits more enticing.

Year after year, the Republican-controlled state Senate passes a bill
mandating felony charges, and the Democratic-controlled Assembly just as
consistently fails to take action.

That inertia has led to New York being the only state in the nation that
does not consider the manufacture or possession of raw materials for the
manufacture of crystal meth a felony.

And the Assembly's reluctance to address the matter exists despite the fact
that use of methamphetamine has reached epidemic proportions and is becoming
a drug of choice among teenagers.

The use of the drug in Rensselaer County has grown to the point that county
Legislators Thomas Walsh Sr. and Peter Durkee are urging the Assembly to
follow through on the Senate's sane stance on the matter.

Sometimes the Assembly backs off stiff penalties as a civil-rights concern,
which is legitimate and understandable. But in the case of people who make
amphetamines, quite simply, they are felons in all but state law, and that
law should reflect that inescapable fact.
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MAP posted-by: Josh