DRUG ORDINANCE SET FOR PUBLIC HEARING

JOPLIN, Mo. - Residents will get a chance at this week's City Council
meeting to offer their opinions on a proposal by the Joplin police
chief to require a prescription for the purchase of over-the-counter
cold medicines like Sudafed and Claritin-D.

A public hearing is scheduled during the council's meeting at 6 p.m.
Tuesday. The council normally meets on Mondays, but City Hall will be
closed today in observance of Presidents Day.

Chief Lane Roberts has asked the council to adopt an ordinance that
would require prescriptions for medicines containing pseudoephedrine.
The drug, used in about 15 medications that treat a stuffy nose, is
also the key ingredient for making methamphetamine, a highly addictive
stimulant.

Roberts told the council last month that the reason for his request is
the number of meth labs that crop up and the danger they pose. The
method of making meth has become so streamlined that someone could
have a tube brewing in his pocket, the chief said. The chemical
concoction is explosive in certain stages of manufacture, and is a
toxic pollutant that contaminates houses, motel rooms and cars in
which it is made.

"This is not about protecting meth users from themselves," the chief
told the council in January. "It's about protecting the rest of us
from the manufacturers of meth. It's about reducing or eliminating
meth labs and the dangers those labs represent to our public safety
personnel and our citizens."

Other states and cities that have enacted similar laws have seen a
steep drop in the number of labs found, Roberts said. Missouri is
ranked No. 1 in the nation for the number of labs, and it is a
prevalent problem in Southwest Missouri.

A total of 102 meth labs were found last year in Jasper County, with
46 inside the Joplin city limits, authorities have said. The Joplin
Police Department's narcotics investigators reportedly spent 1,200
hours last year probing, disassembling and cleaning up homemade meth
labs.

A waste disposal bunker operated by the Joplin Fire Department for
remains from the labs has handled one of the highest volumes of meth
waste in Missouri several years running, Roberts has said.

Opponents of the proposal have cited concerns about burdens on
legitimate users of the cold medicine and the plan's limits in terms
of addressing meth abuse in general. Some pharmacists have said such
prescription-only requirements would increase health care costs by
forcing people to go to the doctor to get a prescription and would
make the drug more expensive.

In other business, the council will be asked to approve an agreement
with the firm of Allgeier, Martin & Associates Inc. for $887,000 for
the engineering work on the second phase of upgrades at the city's two
wastewater plants.

About $35 million worth of work is being done in order to further
clean the water discharged from the plants, change the way sludge is
handled and prepare the plants to handle larger capacities.

The council will be asked during its informal session for the city to
pay for a council member to attend a National League of Cities
conference March 12-16 in Washington, D.C.

Melodee Colbert-Kean is serving on the league's board of directors
this year and has said she would make at least three trips for
meetings and conferences. Some other members of the council earlier
questioned the spending, but a majority of the council agreed to pay
flight costs of about $376 that she asked for in January. The
discussion is set for the council's informal meeting at 5:15 p.m.