Pubdate: Sat, 06 Dec 2003 Source: Winston-Salem Journal (NC) Copyright: 2003 Piedmont Publishing Co. Inc. Contact: http://www.journalnow.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/504 Note: The Journal does not publish letters from writers outside its daily home delivery circulation area. Author: Associated Press METH MANUFACTURERS SHOULD FACE HARDER PENALTIES, LAW OFFICIALS SAY CHARLOTTE -- People who operate methamphetamine labs, especially in households with children, should get tougher punishment than state law now allows, justice officials say. N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper and Van Shaw Jr., an agent with the State Bureau of Investigation in Charlotte, lobbied the N.C. Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission yesterday for tougher penalties for manufacturing meth, including longer prison sentences. They also sought a separate felony child-endangerment charge for making meth in the presence of minors. "The penalties are really not in line with the danger and the addictive effects of the drug," Shaw said Thursday before the meeting. Someone charged with manufacturing or selling the highly addictive drug could face between seven and 23 years in jail, depending on the amount of the drug. Most first-time offenders receive probation and often are arrested again for manufacturing meth, Shaw said. Prosecutors can't apply North Carolina's child-endangerment laws in meth cases because the laws don't deal with drug manufacturing, he said. If illegal drugs are manufactured in a home with children present, the parents can now be charged with neglect, said Jo Ann Lamm, the program administrator for the state's division of family support and child-welfare services. The N.C. Department of Social Services can file abuse charges if a child receives chemical burns or is hurt during an explosion or fire, said Karen George, the executive director of the N.C. Association of County Directors of Social Services. Volatile chemicals used in making meth easily can explode, and the vapors they give off can cause serious respiratory ailments. At least 74 North Carolina children this year have been found in homes with meth labs, and many of them have tested positive for exposure to the drug, said Shaw, who oversees the state's clandestine laboratory response program. "Most kids removed from homes with meth labs are having upper respiratory problems, chemically induced pneumonia, those type of things," he said. "When they pick up that pacifier or that bottle, it could potentially have meth on it." So far this year, law-enforcement agencies have busted 171 labs, up from 98 in 2002 and 34 in 2001, Shaw said. The Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission has to give its approval before the proposed law goes to the General Assembly in May for review and sponsorship. Legislators are limited in the types of new legislation that they can introduce in the second year of a two-year legislative session, but Cooper said he didn't foresee that as a problem. "This issue is so serious I believe the General Assembly will want to address it," Cooper said. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman