METH FIGHT GAINS ALLIES

RALEIGH - Lawmakers are preparing to pass legislation that restricts the
sale of cold medicine.

The state House on Wednesday unanimously approved the bill, which is
intended to make it tougher to manufacture methamphetamine. Under the bill,
cold medicine would be available from behind the pharmacy and at
customer-service counters only.

Pseudoephedrine is the active ingredient in most cold and allergy medicines
and a key ingredient in meth.

Behind The Counter

The Senate has passed a meth bill that would place only products containing
pure pseudoephedrine behind the pharmacy counter.

The House bill, however, would place all products containing
pseudoephedrine, regardless of strength, behind either the customer
service-counter at stores without pharmacies, or behind pharmacy counters.

Attorney General Roy Cooper has been promoting the Senate bill, saying the
pharmacy counter is the only place secure enough to monitor sales of the
products.

"It's a proven approach that has worked well in other states," said Noelle
Talley, a spokeswoman for Cooper.

The bill heads back to the Senate for debate and possible revisions.

Bipartisan Support

The bill won support from Democrats and Republicans during debate on the
House floor Wednesday.

Republican Rep. Mitch Gillespie represents McDowell County, which is near
the top in regard to meth lab busts in the state.

He said his local newspaper gets reports of children being taken from where
meth labs were found and of fires started by the chemicals used in the
production labs.

He said his local chamber of commerce has endorsed the bill, and most
pseudoephedrine retailers in his county are already complying with the
legislation.

"We know how bad it is, how bad it hurts our landlords and our children,"
Gillespie said.

Legislation passed in the West and Midwest has led meth producers east. The
problem is growing in North Carolina, where more 300 meth labs were busted
last year.

In Sampson County, seven meth labs were busted last year

Rep. Rick Glazier, a Fayetteville Democrat, was chairman fo the
subcommittee that reached a compromise bill incorporating pieces of the
original Senate plan. He said the House version would be one of the
strongest anti-methamphetamine bills in the country.

In addition to moving cold medicines to a more secure location, the law
would require customers to show ID and sign a log. Only people over 18
could buy the products, and they would be limited to two packages at a time
or 9 grams of pseudoephedrine a month - or a total of about 300 pills.

Stores that sell the products also would be required to have surveillance
cameras where the medicines are sold, and employees would have to be
trained to sell them.

Stronger Bill Wanted

Rep. Joe Kiser, a Lincoln County Republican, said he would support the
bill, but urged lawmakers not to think they were eliminating the problem.

He said the bill does not make it easier for lawmen to check the stores'
logs because it does not allow for additional officers or agents for the
State Bureau of Investigation.

He said stores would have no way of knowing whether a person has bought
more than their 9-gram limit in a month, and it won't stop people from
going out of state to buy pseudoephedrine. He said the law should prohibit
possession over a certain amount.

Imported meth will continue to be a problem, he said.

"Yes, this will cut down the number of labs," Kiser said. "But we could do
better than this, folks.

"We've got to provide the resources to fight this war on drugs," he said.
"We're not doing that now, and this bill does not do it."