D.A. Harris: War on meth costing all of us, we're losing

Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris delivered a strongly-worded indictment of state lawmakers Wednesday at a meeting of the local Rotary Club.

He once again took them to task for failing to even debate the idea of making pseudoephedrine a prescription drug.

[CLICK HERE TO HEAR THE SPEECH IN ITS ENTIRETY]

Harris had prepared a PowerPoint presentation for the Rotarians but ran out of time before it was more than about half-way complete.

Several Rotarians who spoke with KRMG immediately following the meeting said his speech hit home and some even said they planned to take action by contacting legislators and trying to increase public awareness of the problem.

Harris says Oregon passed such a law and saw a 50-year low in reported crime within two years.

He added that legislators not only failed to get the pseudoephedrine bill out of committee, two other anti-meth bills also died without the benefit of debate on the floor.

One would have given pharmacists discretion on whether or not to sell pseudoephedrine products to individuals.

The other would have allowed municipalities to determine whether pseudoephdrine should be sold only by prescription.

The Oklahoma State Senate cleared a measure that helps track people who buy pseudophed, but Harris says we already have highly sophisticated tracking measures in place and they aren't effective. [SEE RELATED STORY]

Harris said the war on meth is a losing battle in Tulsa.

Twelve Tulsa police officers are full time "garbage men," he said, dedicated to cleaning up meth labs rather than investigating crimes.

He said taxpayers are footing the bill for hospital stays for meth users and meth lab makers who have no insurance, for police, for courts, for children being put in foster care.

Fires in apartment complexes, businesses and homes throughout the city have been caused by meth labs and many have killed innocent people.

He told KRMG calls to his office run approximately four-to-one in favor of the prescription pseudoephedrine law.

CLICK HERE to visit Mr. Harris' webpage.