The State - News from March 13, 1986

Saying California is “drowning in a flood of home-cooked drugs,” Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp proposed a package of four bills that would crack down on what he called the “fearsome” spread of clandestine drug labs in the state. “I am here this morning to ask the Legislature and the governor for a life preserver,” he told a Los Angeles press conference. Authorities raided 215 illicit drug laboratories in California last year, he said, but officials believe as many as 800 labs--each capable of producing 25 pounds of illegal narcotics weekly--are still operating. Van de Kamp’s proposals would shut off the flow of chemicals used by clandestine drug labs, increase state money for investigation and seizure of the labs, impose longer prison sentences on lab operators and increase equipment and training for law enforcement agencies.