BASEMENT DRUGS A VERY REAL DANGER TO SCHOOLKIDS

Home cookin' used to be fried trout and potatoes, made with love by mom
Now, addicts and drug pushers do their own home cookin'. The ingredients
for a "meal" - including Sudafed and many household items - are more a
science experiment than a recipe. Still, West Virginians ingest these
products after their transformation into crystal meth in someone's kitchen
or basement. Crystal meth cooks can buy these ingredients, and the tools
needed to concoct this addictive drug, easily. It would be impossible for
legislators to make stores shelve first-aid and camping supplies behind the
registers. But they can and should take steps to regulate pseudoephedrines,
found in common cold pills and one of the main ingredients in the crystal
meth recipe.

Governor Joe Manchin recently proposed such legislation, putting cold
medications behind the counters and requiring pharmacists to report sales
of suspicious quantities. The West Virginia Pharmacists Association has
voiced complaints over this proposition, concerned that the costs of
restricting sales of pseudoephedrines and reporting suspicious sales would
be unfair to customers and businesses. Concern over the easy access of
crystal meth ingredients in Illinois and Louisiana caused them to take
steps preventing the use of pseudoephedrine for illegal purposes. Twenty
state legislatures are considering similar laws.

The rest of the country cares about its youth enough to protect them. Why
should West Virginia be any different?

Junkies will always use drugs, but most parents aren't co ncerned about
junkies until their kid becomes one. Legislation preventing the manufacture
of methamphetamines by regulating cold pill sales protects our children,
who are easily influenced anyway.

If the Legislature passes this law, our kids will be safer and may even
deter addicts from using crystal meth.

Maybe then more West Virginians will fry the state fish in their pans
rather than illegal drug marinades.