Pubdate: Fri, 07 Oct 2005
Source: Watauga Democrat (NC)
Copyright: 2005 Watauga Democrat Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wataugademocrat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2322
Author: Jerry Sena
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

OPINIONS VARY ON PRECURSOR LAW

North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley signed into law a bill last week that 
will move popular cold medicines such as Sudafed off retail aisles 
and behind the pharmacy counters beginning next year -- in an attempt 
to curtail the manufacture of methamphetamine.

Tonya Cable, front manager at Boone Drug New Market Centre, stocks
Sudafed on the shelves Wednesday. Photo by Mark Mitchell But the bill,
modeled after a law passed by Oklahoma legislators in April 2004, has
received criticism from retailers for punishing legitimate consumers
while leaving meth users largely untouched. Dr. David Work, executive
director of North Carolina Board of Pharmacy, said the new law will
add red tape to the daily duties of pharmacists, but was unequivocal
when asked if the restrictions would slow criminals. "No. It's going
to make things more difficult for the pharmacists," he said. "They put
all these legal hoops out there for the pharmacists and legitimate
customers to jump through. They can get this drug in the mail so
easily; I can't see how this law is going to affect the illegal users
much at all."

Beginning Jan. 15, customers will be required to show a photo ID, be
at least 18 years old, and sign a log to purchase tablets containing
ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, a decongestant used in the nearly 100
cold medicines currently available on the market.

Individuals will also need a prescription to buy more than two
packages in one purchase, or three in any 30-day period.

Retailers who violate the rules can be fined $500 for a first offense.
Stores without pharmacies will not be allowed to sell the restricted
drugs at all.

Boone Drug, Inc. co-owner Johnny Stacy said he was awaiting word from
the Board of Pharmacy before putting controls in place at the
company's 11 locations.

"We haven't seen the law in its final form yet," Stacy said. "We
haven't heard from the Board of Pharmacy. We have to decide what's
going to work best and what's required."

Work said the board would be communicating soon with its member
pharmacies. "We'll be sending an e-mail out to all the pharmacists in
the state advising them of the new rules."

Fran Preston, president of the North Carolina Retail Merchants
Association, has said she will press state officials to make training
guidelines available to affected merchants within a month. The new
state law does not affect the availability of gel or liquid capsules.
Liquid forms of the medicines are more difficult to convert to meth
than the tablets, which use a relatively simple process to dissolve
the powder binding agent.

Stacy said there is no appreciable difference between the liquid cold
medicines and those in tablet form.

If North Carolina retailers remain skeptical of the law's
effectiveness, Oklahomans have had a year and a half to assess the
successes and failures of the new restrictions, which have become a
model for a growing number of states looking for a way to stem the
growth of clandestine meth labs around the country.

Nationwide, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seized
9,797 meth labs last year compared with 162 in 1995.

The National Association of Counties released a survey this summer of
500 law-enforcement agencies and found that 87 percent reported an
increase in meth-related arrests in the past three years. Sixty
percent of county sheriffs said meth is now their main drug problem,
linking it to increases in robberies, domestic violence, assaults,
identity thefts, and child neglect.

Oklahoma has seen an 80 percent reduction in clandestine labs and
precursor chemical dump sites -- from an average of 105 to 19 per
month -- since enacting the new rules.

A DEA spokesman has said it would wait to see if the numbers stabilize
before making any recommendations to the Bush administration, which
has placed marijuana at the top of its drug-war priorities. Watauga
County Sheriff Mark Shook was pleased North Carolina had followed the
lead of states like Oklahoma, calling the restrictions "a tried and
true law" likely to make it harder on illicit cooks. "I think it's
great. It's been needed for awhile and we've been going down to
Raleigh trying to get it passed," Shook said. Shook has been a leading
advocate for tougher sentencing and beefed up enforcement against meth
producers since his election in 2002. His efforts, and those of the
Northwestern North Carolina Methamphetamine Task Force he helped
create in 2004, have contributed to Watauga County's transformation
from worst meth record in the state to most improved. With three
months left in the year, Shook said law enforcement has found only 13
clandestine labs or dump sites in the county so far. During the past
two years the county accounted for 43 labs and dumpsites -- tops in
the state for 2003 and good enough for third last year. And much of
the meth-making activity has been isolated to two areas of the county,
Shook said, adding that the decreased activity has freed his officers
to concentrate on other areas of drug enforcement.  "We've been able
to look at other sources of meth, like trafficking," Shook said.
"We're also getting more tips on crack cocaine, cocaine, and marijuana."

Though concern for meth abuse has been rising in recent years, meth
users are still outnumbered by those of marijuana, cocaine and heroin.
A great deal of that concern comes from the proliferation of
mom-and-pop drug labs which use common but volatile and highly toxic
household chemicals endangering children, neighbors, law enforcement
officers, emergency responders such as firefighters and paramedics,
and the meth cooks themselves.
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