Area towns in no hurry to repeal Sudafed laws

There still are people who come into the Broadway Prescription Shop in downtown Cape Girardeau looking to get Sudafed and are turned away, according to Pharmacist Shannon Neal.

Broadway Prescription Shop serves quite a few Southeast Missouri State University students who may not be local and do not know the local laws.

Cape Girardeau, Jackson and most Missouri cities have ordinances that require a prescription to purchase any drug featuring pseudoephedrine as one of its ingredients, Neal said. The reason for those ordinances is pseudoephedrine is the main ingredient in home-cooked methamphetamine.

State Rep. Kathy Swan, R-Cape Girardeau, was on the Cape Girardeau city council when the city passed its regulation of methamphetamine precursor drugs.

"Due to the state not enacting a statute, local governments were required to enact their own laws to protect citizens as encouraged by the drug task forces," Swan said. "Perhaps such laws have indeed reduced the 'home cooked' meth as was their intent."

Methamphetamine still is one of the most popular drugs in Southeast Missouri. From 2014 to 2015, the number of methamphetamine cases Cape Girardeau police investigated nearly doubled, from 47 to 83.

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Limbaugh said his office files several methamphetamine related cases each week.

SEMO Drug Task force director Mark McClendon said his undercover officers could buy methamphetamine daily. He said methamphetamine differs from other hard drugs in that it exists in big and small cities alike.

McClendon said the way users obtain methamphetamine has changed dramatically over the past few years, however. The number of local labs has decreased.

Almost all the methamphetamine -- 90 to 95 percent of the total -- is imported mostly from Mexico, McClendon said.

"It's definitely working," Jackson Alderman David Reiminger said of his city's ordinance. "I would hate to repeal it."

McClendon said local labs may come back if ordinances suddenly were repealed. Local labs create public safety hazards that imported methamphetamine does not. Fumes from methamphetamine cooks can be toxic. Rolling labs have a tendency to explode.

"It is a hazard for the community at large," McClendon said. "It's a more risky proposition. ... There's no meth that is good meth, but if you've got to pick your poison ..."

State Rep. Donna Lichtenegger, R-Jackson, said before Jackson enacted its ordinance, there always were people from out of state who would buy as much pseudoephedrine as they could their hands on.

Neal said the number of out-of-town drug seekers at Broadway Prescription Shop dropped significantly after Cape Girardeau adopted its ordinance.

"It is unfair to say that (ordinances) have not stopped the use of meth, because it is now being made in a different way because of these rules," Lichtenegger said.

Cape Girardeau Police public information officer Richard McCall said Cape Girardeau's ordinance is one way for law enforcement "to stay one step ahead of the bad guys."

There is at least one organization that disagrees with keeping pseudoephedrine as a prescription drug. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of St. Louis believes good people are restricted from buying Sudafed and other similar drugs they need for decongestion, said Joy Krieger, the organization's executive director.

"It's ridiculous," Krieger said. "Now would be a time to consider removing these ordinances."

Reiminger said there are over-the-counter cold medications that work as well as drugs using pseudoephedrine.

"I get sick, too," he said.

A Missouri state statute (195.417.1) goes into affect in January that requires pharmacists to sell drugs containing pseudoephedrine, ephedrine and phenylpropanolamine from behind the counter where the public not permitted. A prescription will not be required, however.

Jackson Mayor Dwain Hahs said the only way the Jackson Board of Alderman would consider removing his city's ordinance is if the opinion of law enforcement, specifically the SEMO Drug Task Force, changed.

"I'll take the guidance of the SEMO Drug Task Force," Hahs said.

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644