Pubdate: Wed, 23 Aug 2006
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2006 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
Contact:  http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/index.htm
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/466
Author: Donna Leinwand, USA Today
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

BACKERS CALL METH REGISTRIES A SAFETY MEASURE

Police in Illinois have found toxic methamphetamine labs in suburban homes, 
under bridges, in cornfields and in the trunk of a car that ran a red light 
and hit a police cruiser.

"It's everywhere," says Master Sgt. Rick Hector of the Illinois State 
Police. "And it's dangerous."

In January, Illinois will become the fourth state to offer a searchable 
Internet database of convicted meth manufacturers, dealers and traffickers 
as part of an effort to crack down on meth labs, which have polluted 
communities across the state. Hector and other officials say the database 
will allow landlords, real estate agents and neighborhood residents to 
check for meth offenders.

The presumption behind such databases, which are similar to the 
sex-offender registries present in every state, is that meth offenders 
might return to crime after they're released from prison. Studies have long 
shown that convicts who have a history of substance abuse are more likely 
to be rearrested than those who don't.

The meth registries haven't been challenged in court, but the American 
Civil Liberties Union and other critics counter that the databases can 
unfairly -- and unconstitutionally -- malign those who already have been 
punished for their crimes.

Supporters of meth registries cite a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2003 
that upheld state registries for sex offenders, but the ACLU says the court 
was endorsing a narrow exception to laws that ban double jeopardy for 
convicts because of the particular danger sexual predators can pose to 
communities. The ACLU says the ruling should not apply to meth offenders, 
and that such Internet registries could set a precedent that compromises 
the rights of a range of offenders.

"If you start down the road of registering people who have already served 
their time, where does it stop?" asks Graham Boyd, director of the ACLU's 
Drug Litigation Project. "Why not do it for all drug offenders, for drunk 
drivers? What are the other types of activities neighbors want to know about?"

The federal Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discriminating 
against someone for past addictions, Boyd adds.

Bill Jaquette of the Snohomish County Public Defenders Association in 
Everett, Wash., testified against a proposed registry before the 
Legislature in Washington, which is among six states considering such 
public databases.

"It's one more onerous thing to put on people who have been convicted and 
served their time," he says.

Illinois officials say the meth registry -- along with stiff penalties for 
meth manufacturers and restrictions on the sale of pseudoephedrine and 
other over-the-counter drugs used to make meth -- will make communities 
safer. After "cooking" chemicals to produce meth, the operators of 
clandestine labs often leave behind toxic waste that can be costly to clean up.

Meth labs surfaced in Illinois in 1997, when authorities shut down 24. By 
2004, the number of seized labs surpassed 1,000. Last year, 973 were shut down.

"Meth was and is a big problem here," says Illinois state Sen. William 
Haine, who sponsored the registry legislation.

Tennessee's meth registry lists about 400 offenders. "The property damage 
from meth cooks is horrible," says Jennifer Johnson of the Tennessee Bureau 
of Investigation. "If they get the ingredients wrong, it explodes in a big 
toxic mess. You want to know who these people are because you wouldn't want 
to be near it."
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