DECONGESTANTS COME OFF SHELF IN FENTON

When coping with a stuffy nose, Fenton residents won't be able to pick up
their decongestant from the shelf anymore. They'll have to get it from the
pharmacist.

The Fenton Board of Aldermen voted Wednesday to pull certain products
containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine from store shelves and place them
behind the counter.

Any business that does not comply with the ordinance by Feb. 1 could be
fined up to $1,000 or its owner imprisoned for up to 90 days.

Local businesses support the restriction to safeguard the community from
the growing methamphetamine problem.

Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, which can be found in over-the-counter
decongestants, are precursors used in the manufacture of methamphetamine,
which is also called speed, crank or chalk.

More than 4,000 products on the market contain pseudoephedrine. Those
products in tablet form are the targets for shoplifters who use the pills
to cook up the illicit drug.

Aldermen were aware that many retailers had already moved the products
behind the counter either as a result of a corporate directive or after
frequent shoplifting of the cold remedies.

Over the past two years, the city of Fenton has made more than 30 arrests
that involved felony amounts of pseudoephedrine products. For the size of
the community, Captain Forrest Van Ness of the St. Louis County Police
Department's Fenton Precinct considers that number to be high.

County police arrested shoplifters with tablets Jan. 16 and Jan. 21 at a
store in Gravois Bluffs, said Ward 3 Alderman Tim Trego.

Van Ness has stated repeatedly that it is not residents who are being
arrested. It is people coming into the community to get the tablets. He
believes moving the products behind the counter and requiring a
pharmacist's assistance will help deter use of amphetamines by making it
more difficult to manufacture.

Drug companies are looking for a way to bind the pseudoephedrine to the
product so it cannot be drawn out, and Missouri is working on state-wide
legislation to prevent the manufacture of methamphetamine.