Editorial: Bill would help fight meth deals

Monday, March 3, 2003 | 8:52 a.m.

Each year in Southern Nevada police shut down upwards of 300 methamphetamine labs that have been set up in trailers, garages, storage facilities, hotel rooms, homes or in a back lot somewhere. Yet the production and use of the addictive and hazardous drug continues to rise. There are always more meth dealers willing to risk arrest for the immense profits to be made from selling the drug to teenagers or anyone with $20 and a habit. Some dealers are loners, others are members of gangs and others belong to large, multinational criminal empires. Whoever they are, their numbers keep increasing despite the best efforts of police.

The Assembly last week passed a bill sponsored by Las Vegas Assemblyman William Horne that would provide the courts with a little more muscle in the war on meth dealers. Horne's bill, which has gone to the Senate for hearings, would double the penalty for convicted meth dealers if their crime was committed within 500 feet of a home, business, place of worship, school, park or other public facility. The penalty would also double for anyone convicted of manufacturing methamphetamine in the presence of anyone under 18, or if the production can be be shown to have placed someone in danger of being harmed.

Meth goes by many names -- speed, crank, chalk, for examples -- and can be smoked, snorted or swallowed. It can be made by combining ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, found in over-the-counter medications, with practically anything else, including battery acid, lye, drain cleaner and antifreeze. It produces a stimulating effect for six to eight hours, but that's followed by anxiety and depression that often gives way to violence. The manufacture of the drug is dangerous, as the recipes are apt to explode and injure or kill anyone nearby. Dealers obviously do not care about proper disposal of the toxic waste left over from the manufacturing process. They dump it into the ground or down toilets or storm drains, creating hazards for the public. Meth use may cause death or lifelong health problems that can add significantly to the cost of public health systems.

For all of these reasons, Horne's bill is a good one and we hope the Senate gives it the same support as the Assembly, which passed it unanimously. The public needs all the protection it can get from this scourge.