Missouri may pass version of Okla. meth law

In April, Oklahoma passed a law that made ephedrine and pseudoephedrine class 5 drugs, so hard to get that in certain areas of the state the number of methamphetamine labs police raided dropped by 65 percent.

Missouri may do the same in the upcoming legislative session.

State Rep. Scott Lipke, R-Jackson, said some bills have already been prefiled and that he plans to file a bill in the House that would be similar to the Oklahoma legislation.

"We hope to get it heard quickly and make it a priority," he said.

On the Senate side, senator-elect Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, said plans are already underway to introduce a bill and to collect support from law enforcement and legal organizations and others who would actively support the bill's passage.

Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan recently joined other Missouri law enforcement officials and some state legislators and people from states that border Missouri at a St. Louis conference to discuss the possibility of passing a law modeled on Oklahoma's.

If all those states passed the same kind of law at the same time, he said, then the people who run the small meth labs would either have to travel farther to get the key component, or they would have to begin importing meth, which would be easier for federal investigators to target.

By making pseudoephedrine a class 5 drug, anyone who wants to buy a starch-based cold medicine containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine would have to go to a pharmacy, ask for the product, show a photo ID and sign for it. The buyer would be limited to nine grams of the product in a 30-day period. Other restrictions are still being discussed for inclusion in a bill.

Lipke said legitimate customers would understand having to go to a pharmacy and sign for cold medicine. He said it would be a minor inconvenience, like having to provide identification when writing a check.

"It's not intended to keep anybody from getting cold medicine," Lipke said.

Gel caps and liquid forms of cold medicine would be exempt, Jordan said, because it's more difficult to separate the ephedrine.

In Oklahoma, convenience stores and other retail outlets no longer sell the starch-based form -- those little red pills -- but still carry the gel caps and liquid. Only pharmacies sell the pills.

Jordan said he believes the idea of making pseudoephedrine a class 5 drug has governor-elect Matt Blunt's support and expects a bil will be signed into law.

The way Jordan said he would like to see the law set up, if any changes needed to be made, then the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs would have the authority to issue a rule change instead of taking up time in the legislature.

"Six months into it if we're starting to see the labs have found out a way to get it from gel caps, we would simply change it by rule," Jordan said.

Conversely, if pharmaceutical companies develop a starch-based product from which the pseudoephedrine cannot be extracted, then the departments could by rule put that product back on the shelves.

"We're not trying to make it hard on anyone who legitimately is trying to get the medicine," Jordan said.

What the states want to do is pull the rug out from under the "mom and pop" meth producers, those who make enough for their own consumption and enough to sell to support their habit.

Making anhydrous ammonia inaccessible doesn't work, he said. Meth makers simply switch to red phosphorous. But there is no substitute for pseudoephedrine.

Most meth makers get it from pills like Sudafed or other pills containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine in a starch base, and they get those pills from convenience stores. Sometimes they can buy the pills at a store that does not impose a limit on the number of packages that can be sold at one time. Or they buy the maximum they can at several stores and stock up. Sometimes they steal them.

Jordan said it's possible there will be some opposition to the proposed legislation.

"If you look at the sales of those same pills prior to the meth explosion between 1992 and 1994, they have more than doubled," he said. "You can't tell me there are that many more head colds in the last 10 years."

Some stores, he said, sell more cold pills in a year's time than soft drinks.

"People are making a killing selling pseudoephedrine," Lipke said. "That ought to raise a red flag."

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160