Pubdate: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 Source: Kansas City Star (MO) Copyright: 2005 The Kansas City Star Contact: http://www.kcstar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/221 Author: Sara Lubbes, and David Klepper Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) METH LEGISLATION GAINS GROUND Bills In Two States Would Restrict Sale Of Pseudoephedrine Proposals to restrict the sale of popular cold tablets used to make methamphetamine were approved Wednesday by the Missouri House and the Kansas Senate. The Missouri House gave unanimous first-round approval to a bill to restrict the sale of medicines with pseudoephedrine. Drugs that contain pseudoephedrine, such as Sudafed and Actifed, could be sold only at pharmacies. A customer would have to produce a photo ID and sign a log for each purchase. Customers would be limited to 9 grams of the medicine, or about 300 pills, per month. If the bill is approved, convenience stores and groceries without pharmacies would not be allowed to sell the medicines. Liquid and liquid-filled gelcap medications, such as NyQuil, still could be sold because those drugs are not usually used to make meth. The Senate already has approved its own version of the legislation. A final vote is required in the House. The Kansas proposal also would require a signature and photo ID from anyone buying products containing pseudoephedrine. The medications would be kept behind pharmacy counters. Stores would be prohibited from selling more than three packages of the medicines in one sale. The rules would not apply to gelcaps or liquid medications. Convenience stores and groceries could continue to sell those medications. Both states' proposals are similar to measures proposed by lawmakers on the federal level and in several other states. They were modeled after an Oklahoma law that officials there say has reduced meth-lab seizures 80 percent. Missouri led the nation in the number of labs - 2,900 - seized last year. The main sponsor of the Missouri House bill, Rep. Bob Behnen, a Kirksville Republican, said the fight against meth is more important than any inconvenience to consumers. "What really is inconvenient is when a child or a person dies because they've been exposed to a meth lab," he said. "Or when a kid has to say 'Mom, Dad, can you move the meth lab so I can take a bath,' that's inconvenient." Rep. Jack Goodman, a Mount Vernon Republican, noted that the bill would help stop Oklahoma's meth-makers from traveling to Missouri to buy the ingredients. "It's going to be one heck of an inconvenience to meth cooks," he said. Lawmakers from both parties co-sponsored the bill. Gov. Matt Blunt has said he wanted to sign a pseudoephedrine bill into law. Kansas senators voted to name their anti-meth bill after Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels, who was gunned down last month outside a home in rural southeast Kansas. The house was later found to hide a meth lab. "We still have an enormous problem in this state," said Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, an Independence Republican and lead advocate for the bill, which he said would "drive some of the scourge of methamphetamine from our state." Kansas authorities found 583 meth labs last year, up from four in 1994. The Kansas proposal requires a final vote in the Senate before moving to the Kansas House of Representatives for consideration. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin