Pubdate: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 Source: Maneater, The (Columbia, MO Edu) Copyright: 2005 The Maneater Contact: http://www.themaneater.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1283 Author: Molly Fergus, Staff Writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) BLUNT PROPOSES BILL TO FIGHT METH Gov. Matt Blunt has proposed restricting the sale of Sudafed and other decongestants in order to combat methamphetamine production in the state. Drugs such as Sudafed contain pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in methamphetamine production. Headaches, congestion and runny noses might not be the only handicaps common-cold sufferers face this winter if one of Gov. Matt Blunt's proposals passes. In an effort to eliminate the high number of methamphetamine labs in Missouri, Blunt proposed a bill Friday that would limit the amount of products containing pseudoephedrine and ephedrine consumers can purchase. Common decongestants such as Sudafed include pseudoephedrine and ephedrine. The plan would place a 30-day limitation on customers, prohibiting them from purchasing more than nine grams of pseudoephedrine products a month -- about three boxes of cold-medication tablets. Under the proposal, customers would be required to approach the pharmacy, present identification and sign a written log when purchasing Sudafed or similar products. "You could take a pill twice a day for 30 days and still not hit nine grams, if you took cold medicine as directed for a week," said Jerry Dowell, a spokesman for Sen. John Cauthorn, R-Mexico. "We are being more than fair with the amount of pseudoephedrine you could buy." Cauthorn wrote Missouri's meth laws in 2002 and presented a bill similar to Blunt's proposal to the Senate Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee on Monday night. Blunt's and Cauthorn's proposals are based on an Oklahoma law enacted in April that reduced meth-lab seizures by roughly 80 percent. "What you're looking at is people in Oklahoma are going to start crossing the border, coming into southern Missouri to get their stuff," Dowell said. "It's going to become a problem for Midwestern states. It's something that we need to do now." Dowell said legislators in Iowa and Minnesota are considering similar legislation. With 2,860 meth-lab seizures, Missouri ranked highest in the nation in 2003. Missouri had 1,600 more lab seizures than California in 2003 and last year, the Missouri Highway Patrol conducted more than 19,000 meth investigations, according to a news release from the governor's office. Despite Missouri's high number of meth-lab seizures, some local retailers worry limiting sales on nonprescription cold medications places an unfair disadvantage on law-abiding citizens. "There are hundreds of small towns around Missouri which do not have 24/7 access to a pharmacist," said Ron Leone, executive director of the Missouri Petroleum and Convenience Store Association. "In those communities, how do law-abiding, tax-paying citizens get to medication for their flu symptoms or cold symptoms, say, at 3 o'clock in the morning?" Convenience stores likely would be prohibited from selling pseudoephedrine products. Blunt's proposal, however, only limits the sale of starch-coated tablets. Liquid gel caps, children's medication or liquid medication containing pseudoephedrine are exempt from the bill because meth cannot be made from such products. "There doesn't need to be 200 products that do exactly the same thing," Dowell said. "If I can get the same relief from a gel cap. cap I'm going to buy the gel cap." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake