Two Iowa defense lawyers will take an Iowa case before the U.S. Supreme Court next week that could change how federal judges resentence convicts after appeals. At issue is whether judges can consider a convict's efforts at rehabilitation while his case is on appeal. The Iowa case embodies fundamental questions about fairness and second chances. Should society reward a convict for working to better himself when freed during an appeal? Or would that be unfair because no such consideration is possible for the initial sentence? [continues 2089 words]
The president's messenger got a lukewarm reception in Iowa. While law enforcement officials and legislators were happy to receive kudos Tuesday from national drug czar John Walters for Iowa's efforts to combat methamphetamine, many disliked the federal budget news that he brought to the Statehouse. The Bush administration, Walters confirmed, will be shifting more federal money earmarked for battling meth and other drugs to homeland security efforts. However, states will still be able to make choices as to how some of that money will be used, Walters said. [continues 548 words]
It's not often Iowa gets a pat on the back for taking the lead on a national problem, but that will be the case this morning. John Walters, the nation's drug czar, plans to pay a visit to the Statehouse to thank state leaders for passing the most aggressive measure in the country to combat the spread of methamphetamine. In 10 months' time, the state's law restricting the sale of the highly addictive drug's main ingredient has achieved the most dramatic decline in meth production of virtually anywhere. [continues 260 words]
State officials say Iowa's new law restricting most pseudoephedrine sales to pharmacies is working wonders: The number of methamphetamine lab seizures declined more than 75 percent in June, the first full month after the law took effect, compared to the same period last year. "I'm very satisfied that they're starting to drop, as we hoped they would, " said Ken Carter, chief of Iowa's narcotics bureau. "We're already starting to free up resources so that we can go after the 80 percent of meth that is imported in the state." [continues 532 words]
A bill draft weakens pseudoephedrine rules compared to the law recently made in Iowa. Momentum is building in Congress to pass a nationwide law restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine, the popular decongestant used to make the highly addictive drug methamphetamine. However, state leaders are upset that recent changes to the Combat Meth Act would allow the federal government to supersede tougher legislation enacted this year in Iowa to better control sales of meth's main ingredient. Narcotics officials in Iowa and elsewhere say they fear drug companies - which spend more money to lobby Congress than any other industry - are persuading key sponsors to water down the federal act, usurping strides made by states in recent months to curb meth production. [continues 727 words]
Consumers Will Have Less Access To Cold Medicine Iowans would have to show identification and sign their names to buy any medicine containing pseudoephedrine and they would have to go to the pharmacy for most products under legislation expected to be signed by the governor as early as Monday. The Iowa Senate and House on Wednesday unanimously approved what is believed to be the toughest bill in the country regulating sales of pseudoephedrine, methamphetamine's main ingredient. Senate Bill 169 was put on the fast track by legislators Wednesday afternoon after receiving approval by a bipartisan conference committee. Legislators said the compromise proposal would undoubtedly limit consumer access to many popular cold and allergy medicines, but it also is expected to reduce meth labs by more than 50 percent. [continues 839 words]
House And Senate Leaders Are Still Trying To Work Out A Compromise That Could Gain Wide Support Leona Westphal believes she knows the meth-makers in her town, and she's all for doing something to stop them. But don't ask the Corning convenience store owner to quit selling cold and allergy tablets to curb Iowa's meth production - not when those responsible for the scourge are sometimes released after a few months in jail. "I've been working at this store for 21 years. I've seen how the meth problem has evolved," Westphal said. "But people who make and import meth need to start paying for their crimes." [continues 602 words]
Julie Fatino stood in the back of the news conference Monday at the Des Moines Police Department, clutching two pictures of her dead daughter. One by one, police officers and prosecutors urged Iowa legislators to pass a stronger law to combat methamphetamine manufacturing. Then, when the nearly 30 men clad in dark suits had cleared the room, the mother in the pink trench coat produced her own evidence of meth's horrors. One picture showed a strikingly pretty 12-year-old girl, beaming in a school photo. The second, taken roughly a year later at a Polk County juvenile detention center, was haunting. Angela Fatino appears rail-thin, her long brown hair sheared and dyed. Deep red circles surround her eyes. Her gaze is empty. [continues 452 words]
The group hopes to draft 'fact-based' policy aimed at cutting the number of toxic labs across the state. Conceding that proposals to restrict the sale of pseudoephedrine in Iowa this year are far more complicated and controversial than first thought, lawmakers in the Iowa House on Wednesday announced the formation of a bipartisan panel to further examine the issue over coming weeks. The goal of the panel, which will meet for the first time Monday, will be to draft "fact-based" policy that will significantly reduce the number of toxic, clandestine methamphetamine labs across the state. The group will operate in full view of the public and all special interests with a stake in the legislation, said Rep. Clel Baudler, a Greenfield Republican. [continues 297 words]
There's solid backing for restricting sales of products containing pseudoephedrine, a key meth ingredient. Four of five Iowans say they support efforts to put medicines made with pseudoephedrine in pharmacies and to require buyers to show identification to purchase them, a new Des Moines Register Iowa Poll shows. The poll, conducted last week, shows high levels of support among Iowa adults for placing much tighter restrictions on pseudoephedrine - the widely available over-the-counter drug used to make methamphetamine - no matter where they live, and regardless of political affiliation, age, income or education. [continues 847 words]
A national drug-law policy organization is encouraging all states to put in place tough restrictions on pseudoephedrine sales to discourage domestic meth production. But the National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws has yet to advocate for a single approach. "We don't have enough hard evidence yet, and we feel strongly that people need to tailor their approach to their state," said Sherry Green, executive director of the alliance. Green said consumers and businesses might be happier with compromises being discussed at many state legislatures this year to limit sales of pseudoephedrine while keeping them available to as many consumers as possible. [continues 164 words]
Oklahoma Passed A Law Making It Hard To Buy Products Containing Pseudoephedrine. So Meth-makers Flooded Stores Just Across The State's Borders. What Will Happen If Iowa Passes A Similar Law . . . Or If It Doesn't? ARKANSAS CITY, Kan. -- The Phillips 66 station sits along Interstate Highway 35, the first pit stop over the Oklahoma border for northbound travelers headed into the heart of Kansas. For years, the gas station and convenience store served mostly residents in the rural area and long-haul motorists. But last year, station employees began to notice a different clientele. [continues 1078 words]
Polk County supervisors are prepared to better control sales of methamphetamine's main ingredient, though they prefer that the Legislature take statewide action this year, members said today. In their first hearing of a proposed ordinance to restrict sales of pseudoephedrine, supervisors voiced support for a measure requiring retailers to lock up products containing the popular decongestant or place them behind retail counters. If the ordinance passes after two additional public hearings, it would likely take effect around April 1. The state Legislature is expected to act later this year on a statewide measure that would make pseudoephedrine, a drug found in dozens of over-the-counter medicines, a controlled substance. As currently proposed, all liquid and tablet forms of the drug would have to be sold in pharmacies. [continues 150 words]
She remembers her nose burning and a bitter taste in the back of her throat. Red polka-dots clouded her vision. At first, she could scarcely feel the high - the one her husband told her would make everything - life, sex, their marriage - better. Candy Heimbaugh walked out of the Motel 6 bathroom, worried the powder had not worked its magic. "Is this what's supposed to be happening?" the Des Moines woman remembers asking. It was 1993. Mexican drug organizations had slowly overtaken distribution of a cheap but potent stimulant that had been sold by outlaw bikers since the 1950s. Substance-abuse workers around Iowa noticed a rash of new, hard-core drug users that some called "tweakers." [continues 2077 words]
In the Past Five Years, More Than 7,500 Iowans Have Lost Their Parental Rights. for Many, Meth Was the Cause. Mitchellville, Ia. - Tessa Garcia wasn't the first in her family to lose her children to meth. The Des Moines native was 13 when her mother, a methamphetamine addict, agreed to send Tessa to live with a grandmother. Garcia then lost her own babies to the state when, a decade later, she was arrested twice for selling the drug in 2001. [continues 1595 words]
Substance Abuse Is A Leading Cause For Parents To Lose Their Children. Some Say Addicts Aren't Given Enough Time To Clean Up Their Act. Tracy Deering wonders whether the people who took her children know what it feels like to come home one day and find one's offspring missing. Or to make progress in kicking a drug addiction, only to be told it wasn't enough. Or to watch one's children's reluctant faces as another woman becomes their mother. [continues 580 words]
Ed Nahas decided he had no choice but to recommend criminal charges against the young pot smoker after he asked a few questions this week. "When was the last time you used?" the juvenile court intake officer asked. "Yesterday," the Des Moines 15-year-old answered, exemplifying a casual attitude toward marijuana use that troubles Nahas and other authorities. The boy's mother, still reeling from the teen's May 10 arrest, looked stunned, Nahas said. "I use every day," he recalls the boy saying. "When I get out of high school, I plan to move to a country where it's legal, and I plan to smoke it every day." [continues 839 words]
It's 11:15 on a Thursday night at the Garden, one of Des Moines' dance clubs. Sexy pop music pulses from the sound system. A blue haze radiates from the cooler. Multi-colored condoms sit in a beer pitcher at the crowded bar, ready for purchase. If Landon Heck wanted to make the party more intense, the 21-year-old said he would have little problem scoring the small pastel pills that have become so popular at dance clubs across America. [continues 638 words]
The federal government gave James Pratt little choice: Commit the ultimate betrayal against his motorcycle-gang brothers, the Sons of Silence, or sit in prison and wait to die. Defense attorney Tim McCarthy spelled out Pratt's reason for becoming a snitch. "You're looking to get out of jail, get your lung transplant by any way possible?" McCarthy asked. "Yeah," the witness answered flatly. "I wouldn't mind living." Testimony from a dozen snitches such as Pratt damned a wealthy accountant and two aging bikers who were accused in U.S. District Court in Des Moines of conspiring to deal methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana. After a seven-week trial, Russell Schoenauer, Robert Norman and Pelayo Jose Cuervo were convicted last month of numerous drug charges, largely on the word of prison inmates who, like the ailing inmate, had much to gain for their testimony. [continues 1795 words]
Officials Say More Women Are Hooked Iowans' hunger for methamphetamine appears to be growing again despite unprecedented attempts to fight the highly addictive stimulant, state officials say. "It's extremely disturbing this time," said Bruce Upchurch, the state's drug policy coordinator, "especially considering the potential effect of state budget cuts." Prison authorities and drug counselors say a greater proportion of meth users in trouble now are women compared with three years ago, when the state's epidemic with the stimulant was thought to have peaked. [continues 948 words]
