HOUSE BILL TOUGHENS PENALTIES

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday to impose tougher federal penalties for those who traffic in methamphetamine.

The House passed the measure on a voice vote.

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, was one of 43 original co-sponsors of the bill and the only one from the Missouri delegation.

Tougher penalties are essential to combat the methamphetamine problem, Emerson said from Washington.

"I don't know short of having tougher penalties what we can do to deter people from manufacturing drugs, taking drugs, getting caught with drugs," she said.

The Senate has yet to take up similar legislation. Emerson said Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., is opposed to the stiffer penalties.

The House measure, introduced by Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, would increase penalties for manufacturing, trafficking, importing and possessing methamphetamine by cutting in half the amount of the drug required to trigger a mandatory minimum sentence in federal court.

Under the bill, a person could be sentenced to 10 years to life in prison for possessing 50 grams of meth. For five grams, the penalty would be five to 40 years in prison, Emerson said.

Under current law, it takes 100 grams to trigger a 10-year minimum sentence and 10 grams for a five-year term in a federal jail.

The bill lets stand a part of the current law that allows judges to impose a life sentence on an offender with a previous felony drug conviction, or when use of the drug kills or injures another person.

Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., said, "Methamphetamine abuse is not just a California problem or Southwest problem. It is a national problem."

He said methamphetamine deaths across the nation have skyrocketed.

But Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., opposed the bill. He said it would send more users to jail when more effort should be made to arrest higher-level dealers.

"We can predict with certainty that lowering the threshold will waste precious resources," said Delahunt, who recently joined Emerson on a Southeast Missouri farm tour.

Emerson said Delahunt's position reflects the views of liberal members of Congress.

"Bill believes very strongly, as do many members of Congress who are liberal, that rehabilitation is more helpful than putting people behind bars," Emerson said.

But Emerson said rehabilitation programs only work if the drug users themselves want to quit using drugs.