Amador County - Amador County Sheriff Martin Ryan joined a panel of law enforcement officers who testified in Sacramento last week in support of legislation to crack down on methamphetamine dealers. Assembly Bill 640, written by 10th District Assemblywoman and Amador County representative Alyson Huber, passed its first major hurdle when it was subsequently approved by the Assembly Public Safety Committee after the hearing last Thursday. “There is no mandatory jail time for sellers of methamphetamines under current law,” said Huber. Huber says meth is the largest drug problem in California and putting meth dealers behind bars is a top priority. Under current law, there are mandatory minimum sentences for the sellers of cocaine, heroine and PCP but not methamphetamine. “We’ve got 60,007 treatment admissions in California and less than 700 in the state of New York. That tells you that we’re not doing enough in California to fight this methamphetamine use,” said Huber. More than 40 percent of methamphetamine abusers nationwide come from California. Ryan said that “in 2008, out of 118 investigations conducted by our Narcotics Task Force, 46 of those involved methamphetamine- 39 percent. By contrast we had 8 heroin cases, 1 cocaine case.” Assembly Bill 640 would increase current sentences by imposing a minimum jail time of 120 days as a condition of probation. The Assembly Bill was approved by the committee and goes on to seek final approval through the Legislature. (end) am Story by Alex Lane