RETAILERS AND LEGISLATORS GO AWOL IN WAR ON METH

Re: "Sales log provision cut from meth bill" (TNT, 4-9).
Congratulations to the state Senate leaders who have listened to the
pharmaceutical company and retail business lobbyists and have taken a
stand for business rights over community rights in the ongoing battle
against methamphetamine. What a cop-out.

Given the deadly effects of methamphetamine on both the users and on
the local community, how can retailers reasonably refuse to help in
the battle by maintaining records of buyers?

Is it really a plausible argument, as advanced by the Washington Food
Industry Association, that "Not all grocers in the state have the
capability" to process the required product-purchase
information?

I submit this is only plausible if the same clerks who currently
verify driver's license information on customer checks would be unable
to verify the same information on a purchase record filled out by the
customer.

Neighboring states are in the process of passing similar or more
restrictive legislation. We need our elected officials to step up, not
cop out. If we allow controls of ephedrine and similar products in
Washington to be less than our neighbors, we can expect to see meth
labs here increase exponentially, like cockroaches in an apartment
where the neighbors spray and you don't. responsibility.

CHARLEY STOKES

Puyallup