Missouri senator takes meth fight national with Combat Meth Act

Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., visited the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department on Thursday to promote his bipartisan Combat Meth Act, a bill that would force pseudoephedrine-containing drugs behind the pharmacist's counter.

The legislation, sponsored by Talent and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is similar to a law already in place in Oklahoma.

The legislation would classify pseudoephedrine as a class five drug, meaning it could only be sold by a pharmacist or pharmacy technician. A prescription would not be needed.

Buyers would be able to purchase up to 6 grams of the product at one time and 9 grams over a 30-day period. They would be required to present proof of identification and sign for the medicine upon purchase.

Oklahoma's methamphetamine legislation became law on April 7. Lonnie Wright, director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, said the law has had a dramatic effect on lab seizures in the state.

There are three sets of numbers by which Oklahoma law enforcement agencies calculate meth lab seizures. According to one of those sets, meth lab busts dropped to 57 in April, when the bill became law, from 105 in March.

There was a 60-day transition period for pharmacies to move the drugs behind counters. By November, the number of meth lab busts dropped to 19.

"Then we looked at how those labs were sourced," Wright said. "And they were clearly coming from out-of-state sources."

Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan said once the law hit Oklahoma, some Dollar General stores in Southwest Missouri stopped selling pseudoephedrine medications because they were being burglarized almost nightly.

That's why federal legislation is important, Talent said on Thursday.

Talent said he supports the Missouri bill, but that will only push the problem over to Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas.

Jordan said he's confident the legislation will pass in Missouri.

Not stopping production

Talent said even national legislation would not stop production of methamphetamine.

"But it will stop the mom and pop cooks who can't get pseudoephedrine out of Mexico, who can't hijack a truck," Talent said. "It takes about 600 tablets to make anything substantial and this will get the labs out of the neighborhoods."

The legislation will do more than force pseudoephedrine drugs behind the counters.

It would pour $30 million in federal money into the methamphetamine fight.

Talent said the federal plan faces some opposition from a retail association. He said legitimate concerns will be addressed, but legislation won't be stopped because retail stores are concerned about losing profits from illegitimate purchases.

Pharmacists in Oklahoma haven't voiced a large number of complaints, according to Phil Woodward, the director of the state's pharmacist association. He said there were a few complaints from retail stores about the switch because of space and logistic reasons.

Other than that, Woodward said, "it's been a pretty smooth transition."

bmiller@semissourian.com

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If passed, the Combat Meth Act would:

* Provide an additional $15 million for training investigation, equipment, prosecution and environmental cleanup.

* Provide $5 million to hire and train additional federal prosecutors and cross-designate the local prosecutors as special assistant U.S. attorneys who could bring legal action in federal courts.

* Amend the Controlled Substances Act to limit and record the sale of medicines containing pseudoephedrine by placing them behind the pharmacy counter.

* Provide $5 million for businesses that legally sell ingredients used to cook meth with resources to monitor purchases of pseudoephedrine. The money would also be used to train and provide technical assistance to law enforcement and to businesses that legally sell items containing pseudoephedrine.

* Provide $5 million in grant funding for rapid response teams which assist and educate children that have been affected by the production of meth.

* Create a Methamphetamine Research, Training and Technical Assistance Center which will research effective treatments for meth abuse and provide information and assistance to states and private entities on how to improve current treatment methods.