Meth tax would help law agencies

By John Jordan

As the war against methamphetamine rages in Missouri, law enforcement agencies across the state continue to struggle for funding to fight daily battles that occur in their jurisdictions. While there are success stories in the form of federal dollars, there are still numerous law enforcement agencies that receive no assistance at all.

Missouri's legislative and executive branches have been very astute in passing tougher laws pertaining to the production of methamphetamine, but they have both failed to respond to the problem of finding a funding source to assist Missouri's law enforcement agencies in the war against meth and the cost of cleanups at clandestine labs.

My criticism started with the Carnahan administration and continues with the Holden administration. While the legislature was controlled by Democrats for the majority of those two administrations, my Republican colleagues are now in control and have a chance to address this issue.

As much as I hate the idea of any new tax, I think we are at a crossroad where we have to explore the possibility of placing a specific tax on a specific product that is the specific root of the meth epidemic. To make meth, you have to have ephedrine, a drug found in numerous over-the-counter sinus medications. An average family buys only a few boxes of sinus pills a year. People who are producing meth from these same products will purchase thousands of pills annually.

The state should explore the possibility of imposing a 10-cent fee on each box of ephedrine-based sinus medication. The revenue generated from the fee could be collected by the state and distributed directly through existing state programs to assist with the eradication and cleanup costs associated with the production of meth.

My family is no exception to sinus problems. We purchase in the neighborhood of five boxes of over-the-counter sinus medication a year. Based on my family's annual use of sinus medication, this tax would cost my family about 50 cents a year. I think most Missourians would be willing to pay that amount to help rid the state of this horrific drug and assist in keeping a clean environment as well.

On the other hand, the criminals purchasing large amounts of pills for illicit use would pay a lot more. What better poetic justice could you find than to make those who produce illicit meth pay for programs to aid in their own capture and cleanup costs?

To properly implement a meth tax, it should be implemented at the wholesale level in the same manner that alcohol and cigarettes are taxed. By implementing the tax at the wholesale level, it would prevent the tax from being circumvented by some store owners using a method known as diversion. This is a method by which some store owners order huge amounts of ephedrine pills and never put them out on their store shelves. The pills are instead sold out the back door at a higher price to illicit manufacturers of meth.

If the tax were implemented at the retail level, the ephedrine product would still get into the hands of the criminal, and a meth tax would not be collected.

Legislators need to grab the bull by the horns and be prepared to close their ears to the pharmaceutical lobbyists who will pour thousands of dollars into Missouri to protect a sacred cow.

We have the leadership in the House and Senate to get this done.

Implore our legislative leaders to explore this idea, which I will be discussing with them in coming weeks.

John Jordan is the Cape Girardeau County sheriff.