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