PSEUDOEPHEDRINE BILL COMES BACK TO LAWMAKERS

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- State lawmakers will once again debate a bill
designed to curb methamphetamine production in West Virginia.

The legislation -- called the Larry Border Act after the late delegate
from Wood County -- would require a prescription for cold and allergy
medicines containing pseudoephedrine. The drug is a key meth-making
ingredient.

Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, introduced the bill Thursday.

"What we're trying to do is eliminate the meth labs," Foster said
during a press conference. "There's the toxic issue. [Meth labs]
affect our children. They're like bombs."

Last March, the House passed a bill to require a prescription for
pseudoephedrine, by a vote of 77-23. But state senators voted 16-16 on
the bill, which killed the legislation.

The drug industry and retailers lobbied against the bill, saying the
prescription requirement would inconvenience patients and drive up
health-care costs.

Before Foster's press conference even started Thursday, lobbyists for
the health products industry passed out materials and data, purporting
to show that pseudoephedrine-curbing bills don't reduce meth use or
production.

The drug is now available at pharmacies behind the counter, but
doesn't require a prescription.

Bridget Lambert, executive director of the West Virginia Retailers
Association, said the state should adopt a "real-time" electronic
tracking system for pseudoephedrine.

"We've done a lot of research, and this is a viable alternative to
prescription-only," Lambert said. "It allows us to stop
[pseudoephedrine] from getting out on the street at the point of sale."

The group also supports legislation that would decrease the number of
boxes of pseudoephedrine someone could buy each month from three to
two.

"We need to stop this from getting in the wrong hands," Lambert said.
"The large majority of people are using this for medical purposes."

Only two states -- Oregon and Mississippi -- require a prescription
for pseudoephedrine, but a number of other states now are considering
such a law.

Foster and other supporters of the bill said the number of meth labs
in Oregon and Mississippi has declined dramatically after laws
requiring a prescription for pseudoephedrine took effect.

"The public health benefits of this bill far outweigh any
inconvenience to consumers," said Don Perdue, D-Wayne, chairman of the
House Health and Human Resources Committee. "This is important. This
is needed."

In 2005, West Virginia put pseudoephedrine behind pharmacy counters
and limited how much people could buy. Pseudoephedrine was a
prescription-only drug before the late 1970s.

Dr. Praveen Arla, medical director of the Bullit, Ky., County Board of
Health, said there are more than 120 medications people can use that
work just as well as pseudoephedrine.

Arla said the drug can cause strokes, and has numerous side effects,
such as increased blood pressure, nervousness.

"In Oregon, people are using the alternatives, and they're not
increasing health-care costs," said Arla, who attended Thursday's
press conference.

Supporters of the pseudoephedrine bill also disputed claims that drug
tracking systems will stop the proliferation of meth labs.

Stanley Salyards of the Kentucky Narcotics Association said his state
adopted a pseudoephedrine monitoring system, the number of meth labs
in Kentucky increased from 428 in 2008 to more than 1,100 last year.

"Electronic tracking will not reduce meth labs," Salyards
said.

Perdue said he has no doubt that meth lab production will decrease if
pseudoephedrine becomes prescription-only in West Virginia.

"To not do something now would be extremely dangerous and deleterious
to the health of West Virginians," he said. "This is an effort that
would have immediate results and require little investment from the
state."