Tougher meth laws were needed this year
The fact state lawmakers could not agree on details or funding to enact numerous meth bills during this legislative session will only hurt Tennessee.
State Rep. Judd Matheny said he thought the lack of action was partly because the two lawmakers co-chairing the special meth committee were from big cities, Nashville and Memphis, and those areas have not felt meth’s impact the way so many rural counties have.
If that’s the case, what nightmares we could share from this neck of the woods. In McMinnville and Warren County, we are all too familiar with meth’s deadly grip.
Meth is a drug which has shattered families. It’s a drug which can cause formerly responsible people to allow their children to live in filth. It’s a drug desperate parents will make right in front of their kids, exposing them to toxic chemicals which will be cleaned up only by a hazardous materials team when the meth lab is eventually discovered.
Just as jobs and TennCare are constantly mentioned as vital state issues, meth deserves that same consideration. It’s only a matter of time before the big cities find out what we face every day.
It would illustrate forward thinking if lawmakers passed tougher meth laws before the problem spreads further, rather than after. We know meth use will only continue, not deteriorate. That means it’s not a question of if more stringent laws will be passed, but when.
Naturally this year would have been better than some time down the road, but that decision has already been made. Lawmakers on the special meth committee opted not to act and instead sent a bagful of meth-related legislation to Gov. Phil Bredesen, who will in turn form a meth task force. It is our hope this task force can present meaningful law changes which will make life tougher for meth users, meth makers and meth dealers.
The eye-catching federal sentences recently handed down to former Bridgeside Market workers Gary Dodson and Lester Land are the perfect example. For knowingly selling items to be used in the production of meth, Dodson was given over three years in prison. Land was given over 21 years for that same charge and a variety of others that include operating a meth lab.
This is exactly the direction Tennessee needs to travel. If meth manufacturers can’t easily obtain the ingredients used to make meth, it stands to reason they will have more trouble making it. And if store owners are more than willing to hand over huge quantities of items such as ephedrine, a main ingredient in meth, they deserve stiff punishments.
All this information will eventually find its way into the hands of big-city representatives when the meth problem begins to snowball into their community. And the Standard is confident tougher laws will eventually be passed.
But considering the problem that’s facing Warren County now, it’s unfortunate those laws couldn’t come this year rather than later.