Anti-meth legislation fails in General Assembly

Sabrina Barekzai

Capital News Service

Despite a spike in methamphetamine activity in Virginia, state legislators recently killed several bills aimed at people who make the illegal drug.
Meth is particularly a problem in the Southwestern Virginia. Five bills targeting the drug were introduced in this year’s General Assembly – most of them by lawmakers from that part of the state.
None of the bills passed.
Delegate Annie B. Crockett-Stark, R-Wytheville, sponsored two bills to help combat Southwestern Virginia’s methamphetamine problem.
“My bills are simply trying to help law enforcement agents do their job – both cost-effectively and with more efficiency – and to protect another generation of people,” said Crockett-Stark, who represents the 6th House District.
The General Assembly started attacking the methamphetamine problem several years ago. For example, legislators passed a law to increase the penalties for people who manufacture meth at home when children are present. The assembly also cracked down on people buying the ingredients for making meth.
Those laws coincided with a drop in the number of meth lab seizures in Virginia, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. The number of meth clandestine incidents (including labs, dump sites and chemical and/or glass equipment seizures) in Virginia totaled:
• 79 in 2004
• 53 in 2005
• 21 in 2006
• 22 in 2007
• 19 in 2008
But in 2009, the number of incidents in Virginia rebounded to 28, the DEA stated in a recent report.
During the 2011 legislative session, Crockett-Stark sponsored House Bill 1449, which would have added substances to the list of regulated ingredients for making methamphetamine. The House unanimously passed the bill, but it died in the Senate Finance Committee.
Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, offered an identical measure – Senate Bill 962. It also died in the Senate Finance Committee. (A similar proposal, HB 1987, patroned by Delegate Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, died in the House Courts of Justice Committee.)
HB 1766, also patroned by Crocket-Stark, would have added five years of prison time for people convicted of making meth where children live – whether the children are home or not. It died in the House Courts of Justice Committee.
SB 1415, introduced by Sen. William Wampler R-Bristol, would have mandated a minimum two-year prison sentence for making or selling methamphetamine or for allowing a child to be present during the manufacturing of meth. It died in the Senate Finance Committee.

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