184 new Missouri laws go into effect

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Some common decongestants might be a little harder to find at pharmacies, nursing homes will fall under new scrutiny and there will be a new tool to try to stop the barrage of e-mail advertisements.

Those are just a few of the changes due to occur today as 184 new Missouri laws take effect.

Dozens of other bills passed by the Legislature became law earlier this year because they were considered pressing issues. Around 30 bills approved by lawmakers were vetoed by Gov. Bob Holden; they can take effect only if lawmakers override the vetoes during a session that begins Sept. 10.

One law taking effect today targets mass e-mail advertisements, also known as spam.

Fighting spam

It requires commercial e-mailers to stop messaging people who tell them not to do so, and prohibits e-mail ads from using false or misleading information in the subject lines. The law also requires e-mail advertisements to be labeled with "ADV," or "ADV:ADLT" for messages with obscene content.

The law is far weaker than Attorney General Jay Nixon's original proposal for a state-run anti-spam list similar to the popular no-call list for telemarketers.

Nonetheless, Nixon's Web site will post instructions today for consumers to copy in the attorney general on their please-stop requests to spammers, and to forward any continued e-mails to the attorney general's office for potential legal action, said spokeswoman Beth Hammock.

Nixon's office will compile a list of frequent e-mail offenders and seek to sue them, she said. Violators can be fined up to $25,000 a day.

Yet because of the anonymity of some e-mail advertisers, the new law "is going to be somewhat challenging to enforce," Hammock acknowledged.

Combating meth

Another of the more noticeable new laws for many Missourians will be the restrictions on the sale of some common cold and allergy treatments.

Medicines with the sole active ingredient of pseudoephedrine, such as Sudafed, must be moved behind the counter, placed within 10 feet of a cashier or tagged with electronic anti-theft devices. The intent is to crack down on thieves who use the drugs to make the illegal stimulant methamphetamine.

Knowing the law was coming, some stores moved the medicines several weeks or months ago. Customers generally have been understanding, and theft has declined, some pharmacy managers said Wednesday.

The new law also limits shoppers to buying two packages -- or 6 grams -- of pseudoephedrine at one time. For medicines containing pseudoephedrine plus other active ingredients, the single-purchase maximum is now three packages, or 9 grams.

To save cashiers from having to read the ingredient labels of every medicine, the Family Pharmacy in Montgomery City is going a step further and limiting customers to two boxes of all cough and cold medicines, said Jack Holtman, the store's co-owner.

Holtman also places no more than three or four boxes of Sudafed on the shelf at a time -- his own extra deterrent to thieves.

"Unfortunately, I'm of the opinion that if somebody's going to make meth, they're going to find a way to get it," Holtman said. But "I think if the new law deters a problem a little bit, it's fine."

Tougher penalties

The new nursing home law strengthens penalties for troubled facilities while easing state oversight of those that perform well. It raises the maximum daily fines to $25,000 from the current $10,000 and establishes an automatic fine for conditions that put residents' lives in danger. Under previous law, nursing homes could avoid fines by filing a correction plan by the time they are re-inspected.

The new law "gives me a lot more tools to use to ensure that that facility achieves compliance" with state law, said Darrell Hendrickson, the long-term care director in the Department of Health and Senior Services.

"I don't know that family members will notice any immediate change," Hendrickson added. "But I'm really hoping they'll see an overall improvement in the quality of care they're receiving."

Among other laws less likely to have a direct affect on people are symbolic gestures naming the Norton/Cynthiana the official state grape and declaring the western Missouri town of Adrian "the purple martin capital of the state of Missouri."