The Senate on Tuesday sent to the governor House Bill 512, which supporters say is designed to curtail the state's escalating meth activity. The House earlier passed the bill. Gov. Haley Barbour said he would sign the bill. The law would go into effect July 1. Oregon passed a similar law in 2006. Barbour said the new law would "make it more difficult to obtain the ingredients for this drug that tears families apart and harms many of our communities. Meth labs threaten public safety, and I don't think there is any doubt we will see a drop in the number of labs in our state." [continues 581 words]
JACKSON - Mississippi is a step closer to adopting stiffer laws to combat its escalating methamphetamine problem. Gov. Haley Barbour has been sent a bill that would require retailers to store cold medicines containing a key ingredient used to make the illicit drug in locked display cases, behind the counter, within 30 feet of a store cashier or under video surveillance. Barbour is expected to sign the bill. He has until Thursday to act. The bill is not as restrictive as legislation filed in the Senate, which would have allowed only a pharmacist or pharmacist technician to sell cold medicine containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. That bill was patterned after an Oklahoma law. [continues 245 words]
JACKSON - The last time Mark Stovall saw narcotics agent Jeff Killion, the lawman was arresting him on methamphetamine charges. On Wednesday, they met again at a Senate Judiciary B Committee hearing, at which both of them spoke in favor of strengthening the state's laws against the highly addictive drug. Stovall, who kicked his meth habit after his 2001 arrest in Coahoma County on possession charges, said legislation lawmakers are considering "is a good bill." The bill would make pseudoephedrine, a common ingredient in cold medicine and meth recipes, a drug that could only be handled by a pharmacist or a pharmacist assistant. That means if a person goes to the store for cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine they couldn't just buy it off the shelf. [continues 483 words]
If Mississippi follows Oklahoma's lead, getting relief from the common cold will become slightly more complicated. Hidden in some popular cold medicines is pseudoephedrine, a chemical that's part of the recipe for cooking methamphetamine, a highly potent illegal drug that gives users instant and long-lasting euphoria. Methamphetamine - also called speed, crank and ice - was popularized by bikers and truckers in the late 1980s. Since then, it has spread across the nation, leaving a trail of wrecked lives, orphaned children and environmental contamination. [continues 452 words]
One option: Lock up cold medicine used to make the drug JACKSON - Mississippi lawmakers are searching for ways to fight the state's growing methamphetamine problem, and one of the proposed options is locking up the cold medicine used to make the drug. Advertisement Sen. Sidney Albritton, a former narcotics agent, has filed a bill that would prohibit off-the-shelf purchases of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, both used in cold tablets. Albritton, R-Picayune, said the drugs are key ingredients in the production of meth, a highly addictive and potent drug, also made with ammonia and lithium from car batteries. [continues 564 words]
Malone Says Laws Will Help Reduce Crowding JACKSON - House Corrections Chairman Bennett Malone says Mississippi's prison system came out ahead this legislative session. Bills designed to relieve prison crowding and save the state money will become law July 1 after failing to win approval in the past. One bill already signed by Gov. Haley Barbour would give certain nonviolent inmates one day off for every they work in prison programs, instead of the one day off for every three days of work that they have been getting. [continues 486 words]
House Committee Chairman Says 'Truth-In-Sentencing' Must Be Studied JACKSON - A new report says 8.9 percent of Mississippi's total prison population is serving a life sentence, and experts say the figure is likely to increase. Nationally, the number of prisoners serving life sentences has increased 83 percent in the past 10 years as tough-on-crime initiatives have led to harsher penalties, according to the study released this week by The Sentencing Project, a Washington-based group that promotes alternatives to prison. [continues 490 words]
Easing Truth-In-Sentencing Law Mulled As Stopgap A new report says 8.9 percent of Mississippi's total prison population is serving a life sentence, and experts say the figure is likely to increase. Nationally, the number of prisoners serving life sentences has increased 83 percent in the past 10 years as tough-on-crime initiatives have led to harsher penalties, according to the study released this week by The Sentencing Project, a Washington-based group that promotes alternatives to prison. [continues 284 words]
Public Safety Commissioner Rusty Fortenberry will ask the Legislature to consolidate the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics' budget with that of his agency to avoid overlaps of equipment, facilities and services. Although MBN's director reports to the commissioner, the agency has its own budget. "It should all be one budget. Then we can address where we have the duplication of services," Fortenberry said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press. MBN's helicopter is an example of such duplication, Fortenberry said. The Department of Public Safety already has two helicopters, one of which is unmarked, he said. [continues 291 words]
Commissioner Says It's Time to Look at Alternatives JACKSON - Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps believes it's time to look at alternatives to lengthy prison sentences with Mississippi having the second-highest incarceration rate in the nation. Mississippi imprisoned 743 inmates per 100,000 population in 2002, according to the latest Bureau of Justice statistics. Only Louisiana had a higher rate at 794 per 100,000. Epps believes the state's truth-in-sentencing law is one of the reasons for Mississippi's rate. The law currently requires that inmates convicted of major crimes serve at least 85 percent of their sentence before they are paroled. [continues 672 words]
JACKSON - Narcotics agent Jeff Killion says the scene of methamphetamine lab busts involving children reminds him of conditions in Third World countries. "Lots of dirty diapers. Cockroaches. Food has been laying there out in the open for days on end. Horrendous odors," he said, adding that the children have "that far-off look in their eye and bugs crawling on them." Killion and dozens of other law enforcement officials and Department of Human Services social workers were in Jackson on Tuesday for a conference focusing on how to better protect drug endangered children. [continues 371 words]
Need For Protecting Drug-Endangered Children Topic Of Conference Narcotics agent Jeff Killion says the scene of methamphetamine lab busts involving children reminds him of conditions in Third World countries. "Lots of dirty diapers. Cockroaches. Food has been laying there out in the open for days on end. Horrendous odors," he said. The children have "that far-off look in their eye and bugs crawling on them," he said. Killion and dozens of other law enforcement officials and Department of Human Services social workers were in Jackson on Tuesday for a conference focusing on how to better protect drug-endangered children. [continues 319 words]
