GOVERNOR SIGNS ANTI-METH BILL

A statewide online database that links pharmacies to ensure customers don't
buy more decongestants than medically necessary should be operating by
fall, the head of Oklahoma's drug agency said Monday.

Connecting pharmacies statewide will allow pharmacists to check whether a
customer already has bought a maximum amount of pseudoephedrine, a key
ingredient in the manufacture of methamphetamine, said Lonnie Wright,
director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control.

The law will prevent people from buying more pseudoephedrine contained in
cold medicines than the maximum amount allowed a month, or nine grams, he said.

The database system, which should be operational Nov. 1 when the new law
takes effect, is being paid for with a $450,000 federal grant, Wright said.
The money will purchase the hardware and software, as well as provide for
the connections.

With legislators and law officers looking on, Gov. Brad Henry signed the
legislation Monday, slightly more than a year after signing the state's
anti-meth bill, which restricts tablet sales of pseudoephedrine.

The measure mandates specific types of decongestant medicines that contain
psuedoephedrine be placed behind drugstore counters and that buyers show
their identification and sign a logbook before being allowed to buy the
medicine.

"We make last year's law even stronger," Henry said.

Wright said some people who reach their limit at one pharmacy go to another
pharmacy to buy more pseudoephedrine. The pharmacies have no way of
checking with each other immediately to determine whether buyers have
exceeded the legal limit.

Under the new bill, a computer tracking system will connect the bureau with
each pharmacy, Wright said.

"Once you understand that pseudoephedrine is methamphetamine with an extra
oxygen and hydrogen molecule that can be easily removed with household
products, you can focus on that," he said.

"When an addict looks at an aisle full of peudoephedrine, he sees an aisle
of methamphetamine; you see cold medication."

Wright said Henry recognized the problem and made it a "front-and-center
major issue and helped propel last year's legislation and this year's
legislation right on through, without getting caught in any political
quagmires."

The measure will strengthen the anti-meth law, which has been credited with
a significant drop in methamphetamine-related busts, Wright said.

Meth lab seizures have dropped by as much as 70 percent in some areas, he said.

Oklahoma's law is serving as a national role model. More than 25 other
states are considering legislation that copies Oklahoma's anti-meth
efforts. A handful of states have passed their own versions of the law,
with more states expected to follow suit, Henry's office said.

Public Safety Commissioner Kevin Ward said the law creates a black market
for pseudoephedrine.

"It will be more difficult, they'll have to go more underground," he said.
"They can't go to a local store to do it. They now have to make contacts
with people who are involved in that kind of stuff."