The anti-meth priority (New York)

Pa. lawmakers should match N.Y.'s efforts by passing bills to fight the meth problem.

The story sounds like legislative deja vu. One half of a state legislature is pushing a package of bills to fight methamphetamines - the very drug at the heart of a crime that led to the killing of two Bradford County deputies two years ago last Friday. The other half of the legislature already had backed a similar package of reform measures, but it takes both sides of any legislature to get any results.

That scenario sounds like something that would take place in Albany. But it isn't. Instead, the legislative wrangling is in Harrisburg where the Pennsylvania Legislature needs to put aside any pride of authorship of these bills and approve anti-meth legislation. If they're looking for a lesson in putting public good above political egotism, they need look no farther than their counterparts across the border.

Last year, New York legislators, led in part by Sen. George Winner of Elmira and Assemblyman Tom O'Mara of Horseheads, pushed an important anti-meth package through some partisan minefields to make meth possession a felony and to criminalize other aspects of meth production, including making it a crime to have meth labs around youngsters and restrict the sale of products that contain ingredients used to manufacture meth. They also approved a meth awareness program run by the state that attempts to enlist the public in the fight against this dangerous drug.

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