Pubdate: Mon, 23 Jun 2003
Source: Albuquerque Tribune (NM)
Copyright: 2003 The Albuquerque Tribune
Contact:  http://www.abqtrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/11
Author: Iliana Lim centsn, Tribune Reporter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

A LID ON COOKS

New Mexico's penalties on making and possessing meth don't go far
enough, several say. Others say prison isn't the answer.

At every methamphetamine lab bust, State Police Sgt. Ron Mullins
searches for a face.

An innocent face - perhaps the face of a child - that would vault the
state's meth lab boom to the same high-profile place as drunken driving.

Mullins, a narcotics officer for 23 years, argues New Mexico sorely
needs stiffer laws against manufacturing and trafficking
methamphetamine.

And he and others say they are frustrated by a lack of movement in
toughening the penalties.

Law enforcement throughout the state considers the homemade stimulant
more addicting and accessible than heroin - producing a state full of
meth addicts.

"I'm afraid that we're such a crisis-driven state that it will take
something really horrible, some kind of huge explosion or death,
before people will act," Mullins said.

He is training officers, deputies and district attorneys how to
collect evidence and prosecute meth lab cases.

"In the smaller towns and rural counties, people are still learning
how to handle this problem," Mullins said. "It's everywhere."

He cites a case in Lea County, where law enforcement busted a woman
carrying all the ingredients to cook meth. Her attorney saw the
evidence and approached the district attorney to discuss a plea bargain.

"I'm not trying to point any fingers, but the district attorney said
he couldn't prosecute the case because all the substances could be
obtained legally," Mullins said. "It's a gray area in the law that
must be corrected."

A few cities around the state have passed ordinances limiting how many
cold tablets or items with heavy ephedrine content a person can
purchase at a time.

Ephedrine, or its generic counterpart, pseudoephedrine, is a key
ingredient used to produce meth. Cooks routinely harvest the chemical
from cold tablets, diet pills and athletic performance-enhancing drugs.

Ephedrine's popularity and prominence in supplements is fading as more
health risks are attributed to the chemical, which is developed from a
Chinese herb.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration attributes more than 100 deaths
to ephedra, the primary ingredient in ephedrine.

As a result, the FDA is pushing for new ephedrine restrictions,
warning labels and regulations against promises that the supplement
will help enhance athletic performance.

In Albuquerque, it is a misdemeanor offense to purchase more than
three boxes or more than 100 pills containing ephedrine at one time.

The drug is in both over-the-counter and prescription
drugs.

The state Pharmacy Board requires pharmacies to have patients sign for
all prescriptions with ephedrine, making it easier to track the
medications.

The board also prohibits the transfer of the prescribed medications
with ephedrine. First-time violations are misdemeanors with fines up
to $500 and 90 days in jail.

"The problem is that those laws don't go far enough to really deter
people from cooking meth in New Mexico," said Joey Rodriguez, a
veteran Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force agent.

Former state District Judge W.C. "Woody" Smith argues that legal meth
ingredients already are tightly regulated.

"I agree that meth labs are a serious problem, but we have to look at
what's feeding it," said Smith, who is on the board of directors of
the New Mexico Drug Policy Foundation. In past legislative sessions,
the foundation has argued for laws that emphasize treatment instead of
stiffer penalties.

"The first answer is always to make the laws tougher and send more
people to prison," Smith said, "but that doesn't really keep meth labs
from popping up all over the state."

State Rep. Miguel P. Garcia, an Albuquerque Democrat, disagrees with
Smith. He continues to push for tougher penalties when it comes to
meth manufacturing and trafficking.

But Garcia's bill to restrict meth and the ingredients used to cook
the drug has never survived the Legislature, dying every time it has
been introduced in the past seven years.

Garcia's legislation mirrors tougher standards in Texas and Arizona,
both hit hard by the meth lab boom, Mullins said.

The bill calls for restrictions against carrying the ingredients used
to produce meth and would make trafficking the drug a second-degree
felony. Under current law, trafficking meth is a third-degree felony.

The bill would put meth on legal par with heroin and cocaine, allowing
judges to sentence offenders to as many as nine years in prison for
their first conviction on possession, as opposed to the maximum
three-year sentence now available. (Manufacturing meth carries a
possible nine-year sentence.)

The first strike against the bill on possession is that it didn't make
Gov. Bill Richardson's agenda, a group of issues the governor
aggressively fought for during the session.

Mullins hopes to correct that by meeting with Richardson, urging his
administration to back tougher meth laws.

But Garcia's biggest roadblock is the Senate Judiciary Committee,
where the bill always dies.

"Members of the committee are not comfortable with enhancing the
sentences, but they have to understand that these labs are very
dangerous," Garcia said. "People make the drug in front of children
and don't care about their safety."

Sen. Michael Sanchez, a Belen Democrat and the Judiciary Committee
chairman, said several drug reform bills died as the clock ran out
during this year's 60-day session.

"I'll admit it wasn't at the top of our list of things to do, but that
can happen when the bill is introduced late or the committee hearings
don't run on time," Sanchez said.

Garcia argues that Sanchez's support for treatment instead of
incarceration for drug-related offenses played a role in the bill's
death.

Sanchez said he doesn't think longer prison sentences are always the
best answer, but he argues he never tried to block Garcia's bill from
discussion.

"I can't help but think we aren't really getting to the root of the
problem by locking these people up without treating their addiction,"
Sanchez said.

The senator considers New Mexico's treatment programs woefully
inadequate.

"Unfortunately, all this state is doing right now is putting Band-Aids
on problems that really need stitches," he said. "We must do more to
solve this problem."

Sanchez said he needs to work with legislators to address the problem
between sessions, when they have time to hammer out meaningful
compromises.

Garcia and Mullins are meeting with Richardson and legislators to make
sure meth bills make it on the agenda when the Legislature meets for a
30-day session in January.

"I've never seen anything as destructive to the environment and
people, but I'm just hoping and praying the Legislature will help us
out," Mullins said. "We'll continue the fight, but we can't win the
war without some help."

[sidebar]

CRACKING DOWN

The law: In 1999, the Albuquerque City Council clamped down on the
sale of ephedrine, a key ingredient used to make methamphetamines
that's found in cold tablets and diet pills.

Albuquerque is one of a handful of New Mexico cities where it is a
misdemeanor to purchase more than three boxes of compounds containing
ephedrine at one time. It also prohibits the sale of more than 100
pills containing ephedrine in a 24-hour period.

The prohibition also includes preparations that contain
pseudoephedrine, ephedrine hydrochloride, pseudoephedrine
hydrochloride and pseudoephedrine sulfate.

The penalty: A misdemeanor conviction is up to $500 in fines and 90
days in jail.

Source: - city of Albuquerque
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake