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View Article  AG's face meth from abroad

The state AG's have been leaders in the fight against the scourge of meth and have made huge progress in shutting down local meth labs and, more importantly, loybbying for laws that force major retailing chains such as Wal Mart and Rite Aide to put their OTC products that can be used for meth labs behind the counter.  It was a real fight as the retailers didn't want to cooperate, but the laws passed and the progress was immediate.

Today's Arkansas papers tell the story when it quotes a senior DEA official as saying "these laws have made all the difference," and a local sheriff as saying "all our time used to be spend watching people buy cold pills at Wal Mart." 

Recently the Southern AG's - under the leadership of NAAG and its President Ga AG Thurberg Baker - held an very important conference that reveals how the meth problem has now shifted off shore and now demands different strategies. It will be difficult to police meth coming into the country - primarily from Mexico - but at least we know that the bad guys aren't next door.

View Article  Conflict of Interest

The McLennan County DA's office has asked the Texas AG to take over a routine embezzlement case because the DA has a long standing personal relationship with the defendant.  As you can imagine, personal conflicts - especially in small areas - happen everyday.  The culture of prosecution, however, is to avoid recusal wherever possible.  Prosecutors figure that they have a job to do even if it cuts close to the bone, but sometimes the cut is just too cut and referrals are in order.  Sometimes it is to another DA and sometimes it is to the AG's office where many states maintain a small criminal trial unit to handle conflicts and complex cases from rural areas.  Some states - including my own State of Maine - handle all of a certain sort of case such as homicides in order to increase both the consistency and the quality of expert testimony.