Pubdate: Tue, 10 Apr 2007
Source: Batesville Daily Guard (AR)
Copyright: 2007 Batesville Guard-Record Co. Inc.
Contact:  http://www.guardonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1403
Author: Larry Stroud, Guard Associated Editor	
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

SHARP JOINS INDEPENDENCE COUNTY SUIT

ASH FLAT -- The Sharp County Quorum Court voted Monday to join a 
class action lawsuit against a pair of pharmaceutical giants and some 
distributors of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine.

The vote was 8-0 with one justice absent.

The purpose of the lawsuit, filed in circuit court by Independence 
County last month, is to recoup damages that counties have incurred 
while combating methamphetamine use and addiction.

The suit contends that ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are the only 
ingredients that makers of the illegal drug methamphetamine cannot 
make on their own but must obtain from over the counter drugs.

It also says the makers are aware that their products are used to 
manufacture methamphetamine and they have the technology to create 
the medicine they sell in a form in which it would be impossible or 
virtually impossible to extract ingredients for methamphetamine production.

The suit says the Drug Enforcement Administration began pushing for 
controls on ephedrine and pseudoephedrine as early as 1986 and that 
had the drug companies been "reasonably prudent" they would have 
embraced and cooperated with these efforts but did not. It says they 
enacted some measures but that "loopholes" in the law protected the 
defendants and kept ephedrine and pseudoephedrine available for 
illegal methamphetamine "cooking."

The lawsuit is modeled after the tobacco lawsuits that ended with a 
huge multi-state tobacco settlement in 1998.

Sharp County Judge Larry Brown said joining the suit will not cost 
the county any money, since the attorneys are working on a percentage 
basis should the suit be successful.

Several other nearby counties have been asked to join the lawsuit.

In other business, Brown noted the countywide sales tax collection 
received for last month, $54,568, is down from the previous two 
months but the average monthly revenue for 2007 remains at $60,388, 
almost identical to the monthly average for all of 2006.

Treasurer Wanda Girtman's report shows $181,163 received for 2007 to 
date, as compared with $176,771 for 2006 at the same point.

Brown reported no action on title work on the former Sharp Nursing 
Home property, which the county wants to sell. A reappraisal is 
scheduled after title work and surveying are completed.

In a legislative update, Brown said all of the passed bills have not 
yet been signed by Gov. Mike Beebe, but there is a possibility the 
county may receive some one-time money and an increase in turnback 
funds from the legislation.

"I don't want to get too excited until we have a bird in the hand," he said.

Brown reported the county was not at fault in a road grader accident 
in which a car was following the grader too closely when the grader 
operator, Jeff Goings, backed up.

"The road grader backed up and a rear wheel went up on the car and 
flattened the roof down on the driver's side," Brown said.

The driver exited through the console space between the front seats 
and the rear door on the opposite side of the car before the 
vehicle's roof flattened, Brown said.

"Our insurance agent says we're not liable for that accident," Brown 
said. "We have a sign on the back of the grader that says stay back 100 feet.

"Luckily, no one was hurt and no one was killed," he said.

The driver of the car was taken to the Fulton County Hospital at 
Salem as a precaution.

The car's driver had no driver's license and the car was not covered 
by liability insurance as required by law, Brown said.

"The officers on the scene indicated it was a no fault accident," he said.

The grader was not damaged but the car was "pretty much totaled," Brown said.

The judge said repairs on the bridge on Baker Cemetery Road, which 
have been ongoing for several weeks, have been completed.

Sheriff Dale Weaver reported the newer dispatchers have been taking 
in-house training concerning the Geographic Information System at the 
central dispatch center. He and Assessor Kathy Nix also said 911 
addresses are being updated as required by a GIS grant.

JP Buell Wilkes of Evening Shade was absent due to a work commitment.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman