• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Meth makers, sex traffickers and financial scammers are among the targets of legislation that South Dakota's attorney general proposed Monday for the upcoming session.
• Attorney General Marty Jackley released proposed bills or amendments in six areas, including one that would give state judges the option of requiring people to forfeit computers, vehicles or other property if they're convicted of child pornography or human trafficking. The concept, similar to what is currently allowed for some drug crimes, would remove the incentive for the criminal and provide the victim with some compensation, he said.
• "In other words, if you get caught from this you, you don't get any financial gain from it. We're going to take it from you," Jackley said.
• The law also would save the state money because, Jackley offered as an example, it wouldn't have to clean up a computer belonging to someone convicted of possessing child pornography before giving it back. State law currently doesn't allow a judge to just dispose of that property, he said.
• Another bill deals with the growing number of meth labs. The state busted at least 38 meth labs last year, arrested 1,130 people and seized a record 79 pounds of the drug, he said.
• Technology is making it easier for users to make their own meth, so the legislation would allow pharmacies across the state to electronically report the sale of cold medicines. Currently, they fill out paperwork to feed a database that tracks sales, Jackley said.
• That real-time system wouldn't cost retailers anything, he said, and the goal is to stop the sale, not catch someone making a buy.
• "A retailer at Wal-Mart plugs in a pseudoephedrine sale. The guy goes to Walgreens and the system tells them," Jackley said of how it would work.
• Republican Sen. Craig Tieszen, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a former Rapid City police chief, said the electronic records proposal is a good idea.
• "It just modernizes a system we ought to have in place to monitor the illegal production of that drug," he said.
• Regarding the forfeiture bill for sex crimes, Tieszen said he needs more information before he could comment on its merits.
• "The question is whether civil forfeiture as a form of punishment is the right thing

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