Pubdate: Tue, 01 Mar 2005
Source: Sun Herald (MS)
Copyright: 2005, The Sun Herald
Contact:  http://www.sunherald.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/432
Author: Shelia Byrd, Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

STIFFER METH BILL AWAITS GOVERNOR'S SIGNATURE

JACKSON - Mississippi is a step closer to adopting stiffer laws to combat
its escalating methamphetamine problem.

Gov. Haley Barbour has been sent a bill that would require retailers to
store cold medicines containing a key ingredient used to make the illicit
drug in locked display cases, behind the counter, within 30 feet of a store
cashier or under video surveillance.

Barbour is expected to sign the bill. He has until Thursday to act.

The bill is not as restrictive as legislation filed in the Senate, which
would have allowed only a pharmacist or pharmacist technician to sell cold
medicine containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. That bill was patterned
after an Oklahoma law.

"I supported the dispensation under a pharmacist's direction because that
was best. But this will help," said Rep. Tommy Reynolds, D-Water Valley. "We
don't need to pull any punches on crystal meth because it is devastating our
young people."

The bill sent to the governor also limits the amount of the cold tablets
sold to a customer to no more than two packages per transaction or six grams
of pseudoephedrine or ephedrine.

A retailer who violates the law could face a misdemeanor charge. Retailers
caught making "backdoor sales" of the tablets by the caseload could face a
felony charge, said Sen. Sidney Albritton, R-Picayune.

Under the legislation, the Bureau of Narcotics may develop a program to
inform retailers about the meth problem in the state and provide ways to
report activity.

Meth is a highly addictive and potent powder "cooked" from such common
ingredients as ammonia, lithium from car batteries and pseudoephedrine.
After snorting, eating or injecting the drug, users experience rushes of
energy and euphoria. The drug's effects can last for hours.

Meth creates the potential for explosions and contamination because of the
combustible ingredients used to manufacture it.

Albritton, a former state narcotics agent, said lawmakers met with
pharmacists, retailers and Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics agents before
writing the compromise bill.

MBN agents told lawmakers that 90 percent of the clandestine labs in
Mississippi use cold tablets as the only active ingredients, Albritton said. 
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