NEW LAW TO LIMIT SALES OF KEY METH INGREDIENT

Meth cookers throughout the state are going to find it tougher to ply their
trade come January, courtesy of a new law signed last week by the governor
that is similar to one adopted last year by Covina.

Seeking to curb both the literal and figurative explosion of methamphetamine
labs across the state, the new law will limit the over-the-counter sales of
cold and allergy tablets that contain a key methamphetamine ingredient.

Customers will no longer be allowed to buy and drug and other stores will no
longer be allowed to sell any more than three packets of medication at any
one time containing ephedrine or three similarly acting chemicals.

The law also limits one-time sales to a maximum of 9 grams of ephedrine even
if that limit is reached with a smaller purchase.

"Covina had one of the first laws and so in that sense they helped set the
trend," said Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, who authored the
legislation.

"At the same time it didn't make a sense to have a law in one city and not
in another, so for those cities that did (have ordinances) they set the tone
for us to move forward."

Following the statewide lead of Chino and other Inland Empire cities, Covina
was the first city in Los Angeles County to limit cold and allergy tablet
sales back in March 1998.

It was promoted by Councilman Walt Allen, who is a state narcotics officer
and as president-elect of the California Narcotics Off Association worked on
Runner's bill.

"I am pretty excited about it," said Allen, who is a GOP primary candidate
in the 59th Assembly District. "Crooks will buy sho full of the tablets and
now we have a state law that restricts it."

Passage of this year's bill was not easy. It required negotiations among law
enforcement, retailers and even organized labor, Run Law enforcement wanted
the lowest possible limit, while the California Retailers Association, which
represents major stores, wanted a higher limit, he said.

And the United Food and Commercial Workers union wanted to ensure that store
clerks, who face personal liability under the law, only had to learn one set
of regulations, he said. Violations of the law are a misdemeanor.

That required that the law would pre-empt any local ordinances, even if they
were tougher, making it imperative that the state limit be fairly strict,
Runner said.

Indeed, the Covina law limits one-time sales to no more than two 24-tablet
packs, or 3 grams of ephedrine. The state law will pre-empt it come Jan. 1.

At the time the local ordinance was passed, Covina police had raided four
meth labs both in and out of the city within just two weeks. Chino adopted
its law in April 1997 after a meth lab exploded in a motel room.

Allen said the laws are effective in crimping the activities of so-called
"tweakers," small-time meth manufacturers who drive from store to store
buying up enough cold tablets to cook up the drug.

Police say a 24-pack of standard cold or allergy tablets contains enough
ephedrine to make about a gram of methamphetamine, which is extracted from
the tablets in a fairly simple process before being combined with other
ingredients.