Pubdate: Sun, 26 Jan 2003
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)
Copyright: 2003 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Contact:  http://www.stltoday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/418
Author: Amanda C. Tinnin

DECONGESTANTS COME OFF SHELF IN FENTON

When coping with a stuffy nose, Fenton residents won't be able to pick up 
their decongestant from the shelf anymore. They'll have to get it from the 
pharmacist.

The Fenton Board of Aldermen voted Wednesday to pull certain products 
containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine from store shelves and place them 
behind the counter.

Any business that does not comply with the ordinance by Feb. 1 could be 
fined up to $1,000 or its owner imprisoned for up to 90 days.

Local businesses support the restriction to safeguard the community from 
the growing methamphetamine problem.

Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, which can be found in over-the-counter 
decongestants, are precursors used in the manufacture of methamphetamine, 
which is also called speed, crank or chalk.

More than 4,000 products on the market contain pseudoephedrine. Those 
products in tablet form are the targets for shoplifters who use the pills 
to cook up the illicit drug.

Aldermen were aware that many retailers had already moved the products 
behind the counter either as a result of a corporate directive or after 
frequent shoplifting of the cold remedies.

Over the past two years, the city of Fenton has made more than 30 arrests 
that involved felony amounts of pseudoephedrine products. For the size of 
the community, Captain Forrest Van Ness of the St. Louis County Police 
Department's Fenton Precinct considers that number to be high.

County police arrested shoplifters with tablets Jan. 16 and Jan. 21 at a 
store in Gravois Bluffs, said Ward 3 Alderman Tim Trego.

Van Ness has stated repeatedly that it is not residents who are being 
arrested. It is people coming into the community to get the tablets. He 
believes moving the products behind the counter and requiring a 
pharmacist's assistance will help deter use of amphetamines by making it 
more difficult to manufacture.

Drug companies are looking for a way to bind the pseudoephedrine to the 
product so it cannot be drawn out, and Missouri is working on state-wide 
legislation to prevent the manufacture of methamphetamine.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens