Pubdate: Sun, 19 Jun 2005
Source: Courier-Journal, The (KY)
Copyright: 2005 The Courier-Journal
Contact:  http://www.courier-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/97
Author: Michael A. Lindenberger
Note: Letters from the newspaper's circulation area receive publishing
priority
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

LAW TO LIMIT ALLERGY DRUGSCOLD-DRUG SALES

Measure Intended To Fight Meth Labs

The next time Carol League has an allergy attack, she'll have to show
an ID and sign a log at her pharmacy if she wants to buy some relief.

But League said she's happy to be inconvenienced if it means
Kentucky's new restrictions on cold and allergy pills will make it
harder for people to use them to make methamphetamine.

"Anything to help Kentucky deal with its drug problems," said League,
57, who assists her husband, George, the pastor of Living Waters
Christian Church in Shelby County.

Kentucky's new law takes effect tomorrow.

The biggest change: Common allergy and cold medicine that contains
pseudoephedrine will no longer be sold at convenience stores, except
in liquid and gelcap forms.

The traditional tablets will continue to be sold, but only at
pharmacies, where they will be kept behind the counter or in a locked
cabinet. The pharmacies may sell the drugs only to people 18 or older
who present a state ID and sign for them.

Customers will be limited to buying medications containing 9 grams of
pseudoephedrine a month, or about 300 Sudafed tablets.

The new law also makes it easier to prosecute meth manufacturers,
making it illegal to manufacture meth in the presence of children and
holding meth makers liable for the cost of cleaning up labs.

But the rules are significantly more lenient than those in Iowa, which
has the nation's toughest restrictions on meth ingredients.

A similar law will take effect July 1 in Indiana, though the
medications will still be available at nonpharmacy retailers to
consumers 18 or over.

In both states, liquid and gelcap forms of such products, which also
can be used to make meth, will be exempt.

Officials in Iowa say that's a potential loophole for meth makers, who
could use the medications in those forms.

"We have only found a couple of liquid labs a month, but it's not very
farfetched to believe that if the liquid product becomes the newest
available source, (then) the meth cooks are going to change their
methods," said Dale Woolery, Iowa's associate director of the
Governor's Office for Drug Control Policy. Iowa, Kentucky laws

Authorities raided nearly 600 meth labs in Kentucky last year, in
hotels, garages, apartments, fields and anywhere else makeshift
equipment can be set up.

Methamphetamine can be made in homemade labs using anhydrous ammonia
and an assortment of common household ingredients, including
medications with pseudoephedrine. Most meth cooks use powder or tablet
medicine because it's simpler and requires less pseudoephedrine,
Woolery and other experts said.

Woolery commended Kentucky for passing its new law, which he said will
help reduce the number of meth labs. But he said two years of study
convinced Iowa, where authorities raided about 1,600 labs last year,
to pass tougher restrictions in a law that took effect last month.

"Any squeeze is good," he said, but said Iowa is convinced a tougher
approach is best. "After all the debate, most people in Iowa are
satisfied with the Iowa law."

Teresa Barton, executive director of Gov. Ernie Fletcher's Office for
Drug Control Policy, said Kentucky officials had wanted the toughest
law they could get that would also be sensitive to drug-industry
concerns that laws like Iowa's are too restrictive.

As a result, Kentucky modeled its new law on the regulations in
Oklahoma, where the nation's first restrictions on pseudoephedrine
products were passed. That law took effect in April last year, and
Oklahoma officials say meth-lab raids are down dramatically.

"Oklahoma officials told us that they had not seen an increase in labs
being discovered that were using liquid and gelcaps after passage of
restrictions on tablets, caplets and powders," Barton said. "If
Kentucky begins to see a trend or pattern that suggests these exempted
products are becoming prevalent in meth labs, we will address the
issue in a future session." Fine-tuning the law

Mark Woodward, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and
Dangerous Drugs, said only two or three meth labs using liquid forms
of the drug have been discovered in the state since its new law was
passed.

"If that changes and it becomes a problem, our bill was written so
that we can alter the restrictions with a stroke of a pen and put the
other forms behind the counter, too," he said. "But we haven't seen
the need yet."

He said the state's decision to allow some minor exemptions requested
by drug companies -- including a provision also adopted in Kentucky
that permits pharmacists or pharmacist technicians to sell the
products -- helped the law to pass the state legislature more easily.
Iowa, for instance, requires that the sales be made by pharmacists
only.

Van Ingram, a former Maysville police chief who is deputy director of
the drug policy office in Kentucky, said the legislation also took
into account the needs of people who live in small towns and don't
have easy access to pharmacies.

"We tried to be sensitive to the fact that not every community has a
multitude of pharmacies, or ones that are open past 5," he said.
Behind-the-counter drug

Moe Mohammed, manager at Dino's Food Mart on Poplar Level Road in
Louisville, said he hasn't heard from the state or from police about
what the law will mean.

"It's been my customers who have told me I need to take it off the
shelves," Mohammed said. "They should have come to me and told me what
is going on, or just call me up or send me a letter."

Nevertheless, Mohammed said he will remove all the affected products
by tomorrow. He said he sold only about 20 small packages of allergy
or cold medication a week, so it won't significantly affect his business.

Pharmacist James A. Davis, owner of Churchman Pharmacy in Louisville's
South End, said he has put all the affected products behind his
counter, as required by the law.

He said he supports efforts to cut off the supply of ingredients used
by meth cooks, but he expects those wanting meth will simply turn to
other sources.

Cooks will learn to make meth without the harder-to-get products, or
users will buy it from larger drug dealers from out of state, he predicted.

"I am certainly against any illegal form of drugs, but when we cut off
this supply, the cottage industry may transform into a massive and
organized criminal problem," Davis said. "What's the lesser of the two
evils?"

Davis and Mohammed said none of their customers has attempted to buy a
suspiciously large quantity of the pills.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin