CLOGGED LAWMAKERS NEED TO EASE KBI LABS' METH BACKLOG

It sounds good for Kansas to rank third in the nation, until you learn
the category -- the number of methamphetamine "laboratory" seizures,
which has skyrocketed in the state from four in 1994 to 511 last year.
The 2000 total is on its way to topping 700.

Officials persuasively argue that the ranking system is misleading,
because it draws no distinction between the huge desert labs of the
Southwest and the "kitchen-variety'' labs that Kansas officials find
in car trunks, motel rooms and mobile homes.

One aspect of Kansas' bad meth rep isn't arguable, though -- meth is
overwhelming the crime labs of the Kansas Bureau of
Investigation.

While a meth maker can buy everything he needs, excepting anhydrous
ammonia, over the counter at countless stores, proving him guilty of
meth making is time-consuming and tricky. As a result, the lag time in
testing and verifying meth-lab samples is giving some suspects more
time to make more meth. Sometimes the delay leads to dismissal of
cases. That allows the alleged cooks to escape punishment, negating
the Legislature's action last year beefing up the maximum penalty to
more than 11 years in prison.

The problem, experts say, is personnel and other resources. KBI's 40
scientists handle about 15,000 new cases annually; a 1999 audit blamed
the delays in part on turnover, suggesting lab workers train on the
job at KBI, then are snatched up by higher-paying crime labs. A recent
estimate put the KBI labs' total backlog at 2,400 criminal cases, 220
of which were meth-related. It has taken Wichita police an average of
nine months to receive KBI's meth-lab reports.

There is hope, though, in the form of a satellite KBI lab that will
open next month in Kansas City, Kan., to offset the load of the main
Topeka lab and satellites in Great Bend and Pittsburg. The KBI also
wants to hire six more chemists and eventually build a new lab. But
the hiring timetable is a matter of years, giving the backlog plenty
of time to compound.

Gov. Bill Graves is aware of the problem. The next step for him and
the Legislature is action.

At the very least, the KBI labs' crunch should speed up the debate
over how best to deal with the agency's need for more resources.

It also needs to inform the state's future handling of the bigger
societal nightmare of methamphetamine. -- For the board, Rhonda Holman