BILL TO HALT BIG SALES OF METH ITEMS ADVANCES

A bill intended to keep people from buying massive amounts of the supplies
needed to make methamphetamine passed the House Judiciary Committee on
Thursday afternoon. Sponsored by Loveland Republican Tim Fritz, House Bill
1317 makes it a crime to sell or distribute chemicals or supplies when the
seller or distributor knows or should know that a buyer intends to use them
to illegally manufacture methamphetamine.

Drug dealers use off-the-shelf materials, including cold medicine and red
phosphorus, which is extracted from matchsticks, to make methamphetamine.

In his State of the State address in January, Gov. Bill Owens identified
methamphetamine as one of the state's most pressing problems.

Fritz said the number of labs police have discovered has increased
sevenfold since 1997.

"Here we are as a state with an exponential growth pattern," he said. "This
(bill) is a truly effective tool on the supply side of the problem."

The bill makes "knowingly" selling the raw materials used to make meth a
Class 3 felony.

According to Fritz, people who are buying cold medicine to make illegal
drugs rather than treat a cold should stand out like sore thumbs, since it
takes 680 tablets of Sudafed to manufacture just one ounce of meth.

The only potential source of opposition to the bill was the Colorado Retail
Association, whose members sell the raw ingredients and could be held liable.

But CRA representative Chris Howes said his organization was satisfied that
the bill won't put an undue burden on store clerks.

If it passes, the bill wouldn't take effect until July 1, 2004, to give
police time to educate retailers about how to spot someone who's in the
meth-ingredient business.

The bill passed unanimously and next goes to the House Appropriations
Committee.

Rep. Richard Decker, R-Fountain, praised the bill and bemoaned the scourge
of meth.

"We have a serious problem with meth - and yet we haven't been able to deal
with the supply," he said. "I estimate that one-third of the (cold
medicine) ephedrine that goes off the shelves is used to make meth. That's
where it's coming from, and we need to find a way to stop it."