| UPDATE - A bill that would require prescriptions for medicines containing pseudoephedrine, the primary meth-making ingredient, passed the WV Senate Health and Human Resources Committee.
The legislation has failed to pass before.
The prescription only provision worries some lawmakers, who say it can be misconstrued as punishing consumers. The bill is widely opposed by drug companies.
ORIGINAL STORY By Bob Weaver
Meth addiction directly affects personal health and the safety of others, and with other alcohol and chemical addictions, has led to West Virginia being a leading state with drug-related incarcerations.
The Mountain State offers few options to treat drug addiction, mostly brief out-patient programs.
While meth production is illegal and a crime, addiction is variously viewed as a sin, a lack of moral turpitude, or a lack of willpower, ignoring the powerful drivers of addiction in people's minds and bodies.
It is in fact a powerful disease from which most people do not recover without long-term commitments to treatment and recovery.
Prison overcrowding in West Virginia increased from 1,500 prisoners in 1990 to about 6,500 in 2010, mostly offenses that are drug related.
The government has spent billions and billions of dollars on various "War on Drugs," with no measurable success.
Meth busts, mostly using the "shake and bake" method, rose about 85% in West Virginia during 2013.
It is often referred to as the poor persons drug.
The number of busts in 2013, according to a press release from the WV Board of Pharmacy was 533.
A 2012 report shows 288 lab busts.
In 2013, according to the press release, Calhoun had four meth busts, several with multiple arrests.
Kanawha County had the highest number of labs at 159, with most of the southern WV counties having only a handful, like Mingo County with one.
The busts regionally: Gilmer, 5; Calhoun, 4; Wirt, 4; Roane, 1; Braxton, 1; Clay, 1; Ritchie, 2.
During nearly a decade prior to 2010, when meth-making was by cooking, there were virtually no arrests in Calhoun, although a number of explosions and fires appeared to be linked to the drug production.
In 2011, the Herald reported for the first time in over a decade, the West Virginia State Police in Calhoun were arresting individuals related to the manufacturing of meth, in addition to the selling of prescription medication, some of them linked to reports issued by DHHR's Children's Protective Services.
In the decade before 2010, with several high-profile meth-making cases, State Police admitted to losing the meth evidence.
While troopers were subjected to internal investigations regarding lost evidence, alleged stolen money and guns, information regarding those investigations were never made public, with none being charged.
In a Charleston Gazette story by Eric Eyre, in December, 2013, the Parkersburg Wal-Mart sold the second-highest number of boxes of pseudoephedrine in West Virginia, while the Vienna Walmart sold the fourth-highest number of boxes, according to sales data from a tracking system called NPLEx.
The CVS pharmacy in Parkersburg also was one of the state's top sellers of pseudoephedrine.
Media is reporting that Rite-Aid stores are being investigated regarding the sale of meth-making ingredients.
Some members of the WV legislature have supported a bill to make some of the meth-making ingredients available by prescription only, widely fought by pharmacy companies.
"The meth lab problem is far bigger than we imagined, and our imaginations now have been supplemented by real facts, real statistics," said Don Perdue, D-Wayne, chairman of the House health committee.
The meth epidemic has reached proportions where the cost of cleaning up meth labs is draining the WV crime victims fund.
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