Bill would expand scope of group to study drugs

A group that studied the effects of methamphetamine abuse on everything from prisons to social services would expand its mission to cover other drugs under a bill discussed Monday in the Legislature.

Assembly Bill 61 would extend by four years the life of the 2007 Governor's Working Group on Methamphetamine use to cover other drug abuse, legal and illegal. The existing group was supported by former Gov. Jim Gibbons, a Republican, and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat.

The Assembly Government Affairs Committee heard testimony on the bill from Assistant Attorney General Keith Munro, who said the 2007 working group was successful but its authority expired Dec. 31.

The bill discussed Monday in committee would extend the group for four years and broaden its scope to include more drugs, including the potential to study legal substances that people abuse or are used in manufacturing illegal drugs.

"One of the things out there is using bath salts for illicit purposes," Munro told the committee.

Munro said members of the proposed commission would not be paid nor would they be eligible for per diem payments. Support would come from the same staff who supported the previous working group.