COLD MEDS RX BILL GOES TO GOVERNOR

The Senate on Tuesday sent to the governor House Bill 512, which
supporters say is designed to curtail the state's escalating meth
activity. The House earlier passed the bill. Gov. Haley Barbour said
he would sign the bill.

The law would go into effect July 1. Oregon passed a similar law in 2006.

Barbour said the new law would "make it more difficult to obtain the
ingredients for this drug that tears families apart and harms many of
our communities. Meth labs threaten public safety, and I don't think
there is any doubt we will see a drop in the number of labs in our state."

Only four senators voted against the bill. They were Sens. John
Horhn, D-Jackson; Walter Michel, R-Jackson; Willie Simmons,
D-Cleveland; and Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville.

Dozens of law enforcement officials, including Mississippi Bureau of
Narcotics Director Marshall Fisher, were in the Senate gallery
listening to the debate. Many of them have said they're "sick" of the
toll the drug has taken across the state, where 981 arrests were made
in 2009 and nearly 600 meth labs were seized.

Pelahatchie Police Chief Glenda Shoemaker called the legislation "a
blessing." Shoemaker said meth has become a problem in her town of
1,500, located in central Mississippi. She said four meth labs have
been busted in recent years, a significant number for her town's
size. "These are people I know. People I love. I can't do anything
for them, and it just makes me want to cry," Shoemaker said,
referring to local addicts.

Drug manufacturers had lobbied lawmakers for a real-time tracking
system instead of the prescription bill. They've said the
prescription bill likely will lead to meth addicts and cooks crossing
state lines to get the ingredients.

Andy Fish, senior vice president of Consumer Healthcare Products
Association, a group that represents over-the-counter drug
manufacturers, said Mississippi had taken a step back in the fight
against meth.

"By turning down a sophisticated electronic tracking system in favor
of prescription status, Mississippi will be allowing meth cooks to
move from doctor to doctor and from clinic to clinic to amass large
amounts of pseudoephedrine," Fish said.

Senate Judiciary B Committee Chairman Gray Tollison, D-Oxford, said
the legislation would require prescriptions for about 10 drugs: Advil
Cold and Sinus, Aleve D, Bronkaid, Claritin D, Mucinex D, Nyquil D,
Primatene, Sudafed, Tylenol Sinus Severe Cold and Zyrtec D.

However, Tollison said there were still 24 other products available
to treat cold symptoms that are manufactured with the drug phenylephrine.

Not everyone is pleased about the bill. Letha Wiley, 62, of Sardis
said putting the restrictions on pseudoephedrine, a decongestant,
won't stop meth addicts.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Everybody can't afford to
go to the doctor," Wiley said. "(Addicts) are going to do what they
want to do. Lawmakers have got more important issues to deal with."

Tollison said after Oregon passed its law, the number of meth labs
decreased by 96 percent. Tollison said the drug is also costly to combat.

Meth cooks have graduated from the typical labs to a new "shake and
bake" method of manufacturing the drug. The pills are crushed,
combined with some common household chemicals and then shaken in a
soda bottle. The latest method can, however, still produce powerful explosions.

Cleaning a contaminated meth site could cost the state as much as
$7,000, Tollison said.

There were several unsuccessful attempts to amend the bill, including
proposals to limit to $5 and $10 the fee doctors could charge for a
prescription and to create a task force to study the issue.

Fish said pseudoephedrine sales in Mississippi are only a fraction of
the national market.

"The issue at stake is not our profits here but consumer access to a
needed medicine and the opportunity for Mississippi to lead the
nation in the next step of the meth lab fight," Fish said.

Similar prescription legislation has been introduced in Georgia,
Missouri and Washington, according to Consumer Healthcare Products Association.