TALENT STUMPS FOR FEDERAL METH MEASURE

Methamphetamine is a cancer on the nation, U.S. Sen. Jim Talent said
yesterday at a D&H Drug Store in Columbia, and he wants to use some
legislative chemotherapy to inhibit sales of its key ingredient to
meth cooks.

Jenna Isaacson photo U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, left, and pharmacist Blaine
Alberty, co-owner of D&H Drug Store at 1001 W. Broadway, discuss a
proposal by Talent to tighten restrictions on the sale of drugs
containing pseudoephedrine, a component of the illegal substance
methamphetamine. For the past year, Missouri pharmacies and drug
retailers have been required to sell cold and sinus medications
containing pseudoephedrine from behind the counter or within 10 feet
of registers if they did not have anti-theft devices in place.

Talent, R-St. Louis, is co-sponsoring a bill in the Senate to develop
those precautions further by limiting the quantity of pseudoephedrine
that customers could purchase to 9 grams in a 30-day period and
requiring customers to present photo IDs at the time of purchase.

Talent stopped in Columbia for a news conference with D&H co-owner and
pharmacist Blaine Alberty and Missouri Pharmacy Association Chief
Executive Officer Ron Fitzwater to promote the Combat Meth Act.

"It is the worst single drug threat that I've seen in my 20 years in
public life," Talent said.

Talent said he first became interested in the meth problem when he ran
for governor five years ago. As he campaigned across the state, rural
county sheriffs kept telling him how they were being overwhelmed by
the increase in drug investigations and arrests.

"It used to be a pretty rural problem," he said. "But not anymore.
It's spread to the cities."

The substance not only affects its strongly addicted users, he said,
but also hurts children living in homes where meth is made. It also
puts firefighters and police officers at risk when they discover
cooking sites. "It basically turns a home into a toxic waste site," he
said.

Limiting drugstore customers to about three packages of medicine with
pseudoephedrine should decrease meth production without
inconveniencing legitimate consumers, the senator said. "If you're
needing to buy three of these every 30 days consistently, you need to
see a doctor."

Talent said retail associations have expressed concerns about
inconveniencing customers.

D&H, at 1001 W. Broadway, sells 20 to 30 packages of pseudoephedrine
tablets a day, Alberty said. His customers initially noticed a minor
inconvenience when the store moved packages behind the pharmacy
counter, but it's no longer a problem, he said.

Having the pills behind the counter benefits customers who have
questions about whether the pills would interact with other
medications, Alberty said.

Fitzwater's association represents 1,200 pharmacists, pharmacy
technicians and students. "We've been supportive from the start" of
this measure, he said. "We feel it's a positive to pull the products
behind the counter."

The bill proposes that violations by pharmacists constitute a Class A
misdemeanor, Fitzwater said, adding that "a pharmacist would have to
be intentionally violating the law" to face prosecution.

If passed, Talent's bill would make exceptions for airlines to allow
them to sell single doses to passengers in need, and it would take
into consideration the needs of rural customers who do not live near
pharmacies.

Missouri remains the top state in the nation for confiscated meth
labs, and Talent doesn't expect his bill to be a cure-all. "We'll
still have the interstate dealers, but it will help keep it out of the
neighborhoods," he said.

Talent is urging U.S. attorneys to aggressively prosecute such
defendants. He said he also supports finding money for cross-training
state prosecutors on filing meth cases in federal court themselves
when necessary.

The Combat Meth Act is co-sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
About 20 other senators have agreed to co-sponsor the bill. U.S. Rep.
Roy Blunt, R-Mo., introduced a similar bill in the House. Both
proposals are modeled after a law in Oklahoma, where meth lab seizures
have declined as much as 80 percent since that law was enacted, Talent
said.

A similar bill is making its way through the Missouri General
Assembly.