HOUSE PASSES TOUGH ANTI-METH LEGISLATION

Stores would have to limit sales of many over-the-counter cold medications
and keep those products behind their shelves under proposed legislation
that targets Missouri's growing methamphetamine problem.

The measure would become the toughest law in the nation, restricting the
sale of pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in meth. The House on
Thursday approved the measure 136-12. Now it goes to Senate.

For two years, Missouri has led the nation in meth raids - 2,725
meth-related raids and seizures in 2002. Although Missouri meth cooks use
several different recipes and a variety of household and industrial
chemicals to make the powerful stimulant, all methods call for either
ephedrine or pseudoephedrine.

Ephedrine is heavily regulated, expensive and difficult to obtain, but
pseudoephedrine - a synthetic version - can be found in many
over-the-counter cold medicines. Currently, retailers can sell up to three
boxes or 9 grams of pseudoephedrine products to a customer. Under the
proposed law, the limit would be set at two boxes or 6 grams.

Another provision of the legislation is aimed at meth-making shoplifters
and is modeled after a St. Peters ordinance adopted last year. Stores would
be required to keep pseudoephedrine products behind their counters, stock
them within 6 feet of a cash register or install electronic anti-theft systems.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Robert Mayer, R-Dexter, called meth "the No. 1
crime problem in Missouri" and said that tighter restrictions on the drug's
ingredients are overdue.

Sen. Anita Yeckel, R-Sunset Hills, is sponsoring the Senate version of the
bill. She said Missouri's meth explosion - the number of meth raids and
seizures rose 28 percent from 2001 to 2002 - requires a tough government
response. "Meth is the most evil drug that I know of, it's very addictive
and it's causing deaths in Missouri," she said.

While Yeckel is optimistic about support for the measure in the Senate,
industry groups are ramping up their fight against the bill.

"Further limiting access to these products is not going to curb the
methamphetamine problem in Missouri," said Nancy Bukar, a lobbyist with the
Consumer Healthcare Products Association, a trade group representing
manufacturers and distributors of over-the-counter medicines.

Bukar said the legislation unfairly targets products that use
pseudoephedrine as the sole active ingredient. Many other over-the-counter
drugs - like multi-symptom cold remedies and some pain relievers - contain
pseudoephedrine, but would not be covered by the bill, she said.

Ronald Leone, executive vice president of the Missouri Petroleum Marketers
and Convenience Store Association, said the bill will do little to keep
ingredients out of the hands of meth cooks.

"Meth dealers are criminals, and they are going to try to find their way
around any Missouri law on the books," Leone said. "The only people that
are going to be affected by this are the law-abiding public and small
businesses of this state."

Leone said his organization, which represents three-quarters of Missouri's
gas stations and convenience stores, doesn't oppose reducing the number of
pseudoephedrine products a customer can buy. But he said that the group is
opposed to the provision mandating where stores can put the drugs.