BILL TO STRENGTHEN ANTI-METH LAW PASSED

An online database of people who purchase cold medicine with pseudoephedrine
would be created under an anti-methamphetamine law that won final
legislative approval Monday.

This type of cold medicine, which can be used to make meth, is now kept
behind pharmacy counters, customers have to sign for it and show
identification and the amount they are allowed to buy is restricted.

The database law, which Gov. Brad Henry has said he will sign, provides an
easy way to determine whether a customer was exceeding his allotment of cold
medicine by going from pharmacy to pharmacy to buy more than allowed amount.

"House Bill 1507 helps ensure that our state continues to see an erosion of
meth abuse," Henry said. "By creating an electronic network of pharmacies,
we will make it exceedingly difficult for meth manufacturers to skirt the
law.

The law restricting pseudoephedrine sales, which also permits judges to deny
bail to chronic meth offenders, has been credited with a 70 percent drop in
meth lab seizures, according to the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and
Dangerous Drugs Control.

Similar legislation is being sponsored in Congress by Reps. Dan Boren,
D-Muskogee, and Tom Cole, R-Moore.

A federal grant will pay for the new database.