Pubdate: Sun, 26 Dec 2004
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (AR)
Copyright: 2004 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.ardemgaz.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/25
Author: Jake Bleed

BEEBE SET TO PUSH FOR CURBS ON DRUG

Attorney General Mike Beebe says he will propose at least 10 ideas for
the legislative session that begins next month, including a measure
meant to limit access to a key ingredient in methamphetamine.

Beebe's legislative package will also cover a number of other topics,
including changes in the state's tobacco settlement with cigarette
makers, punishment for those who fail to report the death or abuse of
adults in nursing homes, and advertising aimed at immigrants.

Other bills may be in the works but Beebe declined to discuss
additional legislation, saying he wasn't sure if it would be proposed
or not.

He also declined to name the lawmakers who will sponsor the bills. As
attorney general, Beebe — who served in the state Senate from
1983-2002 — can't introduce legislation now that he's not a legislator.

It's a less ambitious package than the 25 ideas offered by Beebe
during the 2003 session. Of those items, 22 were enacted.

Beebe said the success of his initiatives in 2003 left him with less
work for the 2005 session, which starts Jan. 10. "We got most of what
we wanted done," Beebe said.

Of the three bills that did not pass, one will appear again in the
coming session. That bill will require small cigarette producers
— so-called nonparticipating manufacturers — to pay more
into escrow accounts than is currently required.

Those companies are not part of the state's November 1998 master
settlement agreement with major tobacco companies that puts limits on
cigarette advertising and brings roughly $55 million annually to the
state from the companies.

Instead, the "nonparticipating manufacturers" must submit to a series
of requirements in order to sell cigarettes in the state, including
placing money in escrow accounts.

The amount those companies place in such accounts is based on their
share of the market. However, that market share hasn't been updated
since the agreement, Beebe said, meaning some companies aren't placing
as much cash in escrow as they should. That gives them an unfair
advantage over other companies who participate in the settlement, Beebe said.

The measure had been House Bill 1737, introduced by then-Rep. Jay
Bradford, D-White Hall, in 2003, but Beebe withdrew it from
consideration and it died in the House.

Beebe said Tuesday that the bill died in part because his office was
busy working on other legislation and because of opposition from the
tobacco companies. Beebe said he expects a similar fight in 2005. "We
always anticipate opposition," Beebe said. "But we're charging ahead."

Another failed bill proposed by Beebe in 2003, which would have banned
Internet service providers from releasing personal information about a
user without that user's permission, will not be reintroduced in 2005.

Matt DeCample, a spokesman for Beebe, said the attorney general
expects federal legislation to be passed to deal with that issue.

Beebe's third failed bill of 2003, which would have prescribed
rehabilitation for people convicted of committing hate crimes, will
not be reintroduced.

DeCample said Beebe had proposed the idea at the request of lawmakers,
who had asked for his leadership on the issue. Beebe has not received
a similar request for 2005, DeCample said.

The 22 bills that were proposed by Beebe in 2003 and later passed
included legislation on disciplining prisoners, publicizing convicted
sex offenders, prohibiting sexually explicit e-mail messages when
someone has notified the sender he doesn't want them, and repealing
the law that would have opened the door for deregulation of the
state's electrical grid.

In 2005, the most notable item in Beebe's package would require that
some cold medicines be sold only from behind the counter of a
registered pharmacist.

Those medicines all contain ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or
phenylpropanolamine, drugs that can help cure a runny nose but also
are key ingredients in methamphetamine.

Under Beebe's proposal, those medicines would be available only to
customers who show a valid identification, such as a driver's license.

Pharmacists selling the medicines would also be required to write down
who was buying the drugs and what they bought, creating a record of
purchases that can later be audited by investigators.

Beebe said the law would be modeled after one in Oklahoma, where it
has had a "huge chilling effect" on methamphetamine production.
"Oklahoma is doing this now, and they've had a huge impact," Beebe
said.

Methamphetamine requires a variety of ingredients, such as lithium
batteries, sulfur from matches and Drano.

But ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine is the only key
ingredient without which the drug cannot be made, Beebe said. "It's
the one that they've got to have, that is the most feasible to
regulate," Beebe said.

Beebe said a 2003 law, Arkansas Code Annotated 5-64-1103, that limits
the quantity of medicine carrying ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or
phenylpropanolamine that a person can buy hasn't curbed meth
production. Instead, it merely requires meth makers to buy the drug
from multiple stores. "They're just going from retailer to retailer,"
Beebe said. "They're defeating the law."

The new proposal would create some headaches for pharmacists, who say
it would create more work for them and make pharmacies a likely target
of robbers and burglars.

If the measure is enacted, Beebe said, pharmacists would have
"something behind the counter that the criminals want" making them
more likely victims of crime.

For those reasons, the industry resisted when a similar measure was
discussed in 2003, said Mark Riley, executive vice president of the
Arkansas Pharmacists Association, which has about 2,000 members. "The
problems with putting a drug behind the counter and taking care of
every individual sale of a cold medicine, those kind of things become
very time-consuming for a pharmacist," Riley said.

However, Riley said the association has had a change of heart,
deciding to support Beebe's bill because the methamphetamine problem
"is so bad in this state that somebody has to step up." "It's not an
area that is going to be fun for us," Riley said. "We felt that with
the magnitude of the problem, sometimes you've got to do the right
thing. Even if it's painful."

If the bill is adopted, the state Department of Health and the state
Pharmacy Board would later step in to determine which products should
and should not be sold from behind a counter, De-Cample said.

Pseudoephedrine is very common in cold medicines, Riley said. It can
be found in products such as Sudafed, Sinutab, Afrin and some types of
Tylenol.
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MAP posted-by: Derek