S.C. IS MOVING TO CUT ACCESS TO METH CHEMICALS

FOREST CITY -- Legislation that recently passed the South Carolina
House will be welcome news for law enforcement officials here if the
bill becomes law. The proposed law calls for stronger regulation of
some cold medications that contain ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. The
cold medication is abused to create the dangerous and highly
addictive drug methamphetamine. Rep. Joan Brady, R-Richland, S.C.,
introduced a bill that would require that all stores place drugs like
Sudofed, Drixoral and Claritin D that contain ephedrine or
pseudoephedrine behind the counter in retail stores. Ephedrine and
pseudoephedrine are altered by uneducated criminals. Sometimes called
"cooks," in a dangerous process to make methamphetamine. Cooks use
common household products to alter the chemicals to make the drug.
The bill introduced by Brady in South Carolina is similar to the one
recently enacted in North Carolina.

Under Brady's bill, customers would be required to present photo
identification and sign a log listing their name and address. "When
the law passed here, we knew that the only weakness we would have
would be that our folks would run to Chesnee or Gaffney to get their
products," said Rutherford County Sheriff C. Philip Byers. "If South
Carolina passes this, and it is looking very promising, it will
strengthen the law for North Carolina and it will prevent our folks
from driving 15 minutes to shoplift the product or purchase the
product in large quantities." Byers used the example of the close
proximity of Rutherford County to South Carolina to plead the case
for a similar federal law last summer in front of a Congressional
Subcommittee on Criminal Justice.

The bill passed the S.C. House this month and is now in the Senate.
Tennessee and Georgia currently have similar laws in place. On
Monday, S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster announced that 40 people
were arrested in connection with an Upstate meth trafficking ring.
The bust was described as the biggest in state history.

Legislation to put the cold medication behind the counter went into
effect on North Carolina on Jan. 15, 2006.

The Meth Lab Prevention Act, a measure introduced by Sen. Walter
Dalton, D-Rutherford restricts the cold medication in the same was as
the South Carolina bill would.

Oklahoma has seen an 80 percent drop in meth labs since enacting a
similar law last year.

The Associated Press reported that a proposed federal law may trump
part of the state's law.

Pending federal legislation may restrict liquid and gel cap forms of
the medication. Federal officials have reported that cooks are using
the gel caps in some parts of the country to make meth. Gel caps are
not restricted in North Carolina.

Meth is a strong central nervous system stimulant that cheap to make
and often cooked in remote homes to hide the smell of the process.
The drug is cheap and the high lasts longer than cocaine. Meth
addicts often stay awake for days at a time and the addiction often
leads to violent or eradicate behavior.

Withdrawal symptoms include anxiety, fatigue, paranoia and
aggression. The SBI has estimated that only six addicts of 100
recover from the addiction. Western North Carolina has been hit hard
by a meth epidemic in the last five years and officials at every
level have been working to curb the spread of the dangerous drug.

Two meth labs have been uncovered in Rutherford County this year.