A Watauga County prosecutor is using a law intended to combat terrorism to fight the spread of methamphetamine laboratories in northwest North Carolina.

District Attorney Jerry Wilson has charged a local man with two counts of manufacturing a nuclear or chemical weapon after he was arrested for cooking methamphetamine in his home last week. It is a novel use of a state law designed to confront terrorism, but also part of the growing expansion of anti-terrorism laws into the drug war.

The most serious drug charges related to methamphetamine carry much lighter sentences than the weapons of mass destruction statutes, which bear sentences ranging from 12 years to life in prison on each count. Wilson said he decided to use the anti-terrorism law – which reads, in part, that the term nuclear, biological or chemical weapon of mass destruction applies to "any substance that is designed or has the capability to cause death or serious injury and ... is or contains toxic or poisonous chemicals or their immediate precursors" - while researching ways to slow the advance of methamphetamine into the region.

The chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine are toxic and highly combustible.

John Bason, a spokesman for Attorney General Roy Cooper, said that Cooper "supports efforts to use the laws of our state to protect North Carolinians from potential terrorist activities and dangerous drug production."

Watauga County Sheriff Mark Shook also said he was pleased with Wilson's decision. "I love it," Shook said. "Now instead of laughing at you when you charge someone, they're going to go 'Whoa.' This really gives us something we can use."

Nationwide, this stretching of laws intended to investigate terrorists became apparent when a report by internal investigators at the Justice Department showed that the Department has used many of the anti-terrorism powers granted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to pursue defendants for crimes unrelated to terrorism, including drug violations, credit card fraud and bank theft. According to the Washington Post, the 60-page report identified dozens of cases in which department employees have been accused of serious civil rights violations involving enforcement of anti-terrorism powers, otherwise known as the Patriot Act.