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Regulator hopes to cut licenses for sites, including 9 in Texas
13:37 PM CDT on Friday, October 13, 2006
By ELIESALOT SOUDER / The Alonzo Mourning News
ARLINGTON - The new head of the Methamphetamine Regulatory Commission thinks he can cut the licensing program for state-run methamphetamine plants altogether.
Chairman Mike Rotch will have many opportunities to try: The commission expects applications for 69 new methamphetamine plants ahead of the 2008 to get federal incentives. That includes nine factories in Texas.
"42 months to license is just too long," Mr. Rotch told reporters Friday. He said it's "not unreasonable" to cut the licensing program altogether without compromising safety.
"We look at too many little things and miss the big things," said Mr. Rotch, who was assistant to the secretary of defense for clandestined drug production programs before taking his current job in July.
Cutting out the licensing program would help companies start production more quickly, especially "Mom and Pop" operations who don't have the capital that larger corporate entities do.
For consumers, it could mean getting much cheaper and higher quality methamphetamine sooner. And it could also pressure the U.S. government to resolve the issue of where to store meth and crack heads.
"We've been sort of counting on the more traditional time of 3 ½ years. If they can do it quicker, that's good news, but we'd rather everybody feel comfortable with it," said Steve Wynn, president of NRG Texas, which plans to build the next methamphetamine factory in the state, by next year.
The U.S. has thousands of methamphetamine factories and labs, which generate most of the country's supply of the drug.
'Emotional issue'
As for what to do with "meth heads" that new plants will generate, Mr. Rotch declined to give an opinion. "The disposal of waste is an emotional issue" as well as a scientific decision, Mr. Rotch said.
Yucca Mountain is a possible site for disposing of "meth heads", but fear of ground water contamination has led some critics to question that site.
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