TOUGHER METH LAW PUTS W.VA. OUT FRONT

Meth makers face some tough, new obstacles in trying to build up a cache of
cold medicines in West Virginia that contain the ingredients critical in
the illicit drug's recipe.

Lawmakers this year imposed stringent measures to limit access to common
cold and allergy medications with pseudoephedrine and other chemicals as
the single active ingredient by putting them behind the counter and out of
the customer's reach.

Consumers may only buy them from a pharmacist or pharmacy technician and
must produce a photo ID and sign for the drugs.

Advanced by Gov. Joe Manchin in an idea that surfaced in Oklahoma, the move
is intended to curb meth production by denying traffickers the vital
elements in mass quantities.

In three border states, however, no such impediments exist, while one
other, Ohio, is still wrestling with the matter.

Pennsylvania and Maryland haven't touched the burgeoning crime of
methamphetamine labs.

"It's a very new concept," a legislative official observed in the Quaker
State. "We have done nothing."

No such proposal has even been suggested in Maryland.

"We're such an urban state," one official at the Capitol said. "We deal
more with cocaine and marijuana."

Not only have no such cold medicine restrictions been suggested, the
meth-amphetamine problem hasn't even been discussed, she added.

Virginia moved to clamp down on possession of a host of chemicals that turn
up in meth labs, but its General Assembly refused this year to limit access
to common cold and allergy pills in deference to a backlash among retailers.

"We thought the retail merchants were pretty much opposed to something like
that," explained Delegate Robert Tata of Virginia Beach, who crafted his
state's new law this year.

The Tata-authored law reads like a chemistry student's homework for a month.

Tata ran through the litany of chemicals, all considered precursors of
amphetamine, that become illegal to possess in amounts exceeding 9 grams -
apparently the magic number in states striving to put meth makers out of
business.

Allowances are extended for "reasonable personal, medicinal possession and
use," and sales in "the ordinary course of business."

Tata said Virginia lawmakers shied from limiting sales to drug stores since
this would have entailed a record of every sale, producing a "nightmare"
for merchants.

"I was surprised that was passed out there," he said of West Virginia's
law. "The retail merchants here would have been all over it."

On the other hand, he suggested, common sense could serve the purpose if a
retailer grew suspicious at a customer appearing at a checkout lane with
massive supplies of medicines.

"That would raise somebody's eyebrows," he said.

"And I guess if you walked into a house and found 14 boxes of Sudafed,
you'd get a pretty good idea."

Even with states tightening the noose on meth ingredients, Tata says
enterprising meth producers likely will find an alternate way to make the drug.

"No, they'll find another way," he said. "Probably mix it with alcohol or
something to make cocktails out of it. There's always an evil mind working."

Kentucky's law is a near mirror image of those enacted in Oklahoma and West
Virginia - no more than 9 grams, or three packages, of common cold pills in
a 30-day period.

Ohio is working on similar legislation, led by Sen. John Carey.

"We worked with the justice cabinet and the attorney general's office,
using Oklahoma as the inspiration," said Kentucky state Sen. Robert Stivers.

"Statistics seem to show it has been effective in reducing meth lab busts
that were occurring."

As with West Virginia's law, Kentucky lawmakers exempted liquid and gel-cap
forms of cold medications, leaving them in over-the-counter status with no
limits on the amounts buyers may purchase.

No one in the retail community complained about the legislation when it was
up for debate in the Kentucky General Assembly, the lawmaker said.

"There was some question from small store owners, but this problem has
become so pervasive," he said of meth production.

"Most people understand, and the public as a whole is about 98 percent in
support of the law."

Kentucky moved in its legislation to stick in a separate penalty if
children are put at risk in homes that serve as meth labs.

The Bluegrass State, however, saw no need to add a new penalty for first
responders, since it already has on its books other statutes that protect
police and firefighters exposed to deliberately caused dangers, Stivers
pointed out.

Stivers agreed a state's efforts to inhibit meth cooking by denying
traffickers vital parts of the stew could be softened if adjoining states
impose no such restrictions.

"That becomes an interesting point," the lawmaker said. "Oklahoma talked
about the border areas."

Admittedly, a state without such limitations would render another state's
law ineffective.

At the same time, he noted, hypothetically, a meth producer isn't likely to
spend time and money traversing from the western end of Kentucky to buy
Sudafed in a drive that takes several hours into another state.

And the anti-meth movement appears to be taking hold, Stivers said, and
ultimately could erase the question of uniformity.

"Ohio, Tennessee and Indiana, and possibly Illinois, are also passing
similar legislation," he said.