Pubdate: Wed, 16 Mar 2005
Source: Mitchell News-Journal (NC)
Copyright: 2005 Mitchell News-Journal
Contact:  http://www.mitchellnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1777
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

OKLAHOMA'S SUCCESS SHOULD BE DUPLICATED HERE

This week we printed a column from Scott Mooneyham, "Today in NC", that
talks about a move N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper is asking legislators to
make. Cooper is asking for the N.C. Legislature to enact a law making it
harder for customers to buy cold medicines with ephedrine and
pseudoephedrine, such as Actifed and Sudafed. Mooneyham is against the
measure.

Cooper doesn't want to make it tougher for sick people to get better.
He wants to make it tougher for criminals to make methamphetamine. A
key ingredient in a common meth recipe is ephedrine and
pseudoephedrine.

The law would be modeled after a similar one in Oklahoma. The
medications would be sold behind the counter at registered pharmacies
and customers would have to sign a list that could be viewed by law
enforcement officials.

Mooneyham argues that criminals will find a way around the
restrictions or find a different recipe. He says it will cost
businesses in lost time and economic considerations for stores selling
the medications.

We say, support the attorney general on this one. The restrictions
were passed in Oklahoma 11 months ago and lab busts have dropped by 80
percent.

On the other hand, North Carolina is playing catch-up and our numbers,
and those in some neighboring states, are still growing.

In his March 2 column Ken Fox said, "Our workload has increased
greatly, but staffing has not. In 2000, seven people in Mitchell
County were sentenced to prison or placed on supervised probation for
drug charges. This increased to 21 in 2001, dropped to 19 in 2002,
increased to 26 in 2003, and increased to 43 last year. These
increases are, for the most part, due to increased methamphetamine
arrests.

"Meth labs in North Carolina increased from nine in 1999, to 16 in
2000, to 34 in 2001, 98 in 2002, 177 in 2003 and 322 last year."

Sheriff Ken Fox is in favor of a change.

If it will slow down these numbers, then we should not mind signing a
piece of paper or having to ask someone to pass the medication over
the counter.

Oklahoma has seen success in slowing down labs, it only makes sense to
go with what works.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin