PLAN AIMS TO FIGHT METH AT ITS SOURCE

Bill To Restrict Cold Medicine Advances

JEFFERSON CITY -- A bill that would restrict the sale of medicines with
pseudoephedrine, an ingredient used to make methamphetamine, won
first-round approval Tuesday in the Missouri Senate.

Under the legislation, only a pharmacist or pharmacy technician could
sell drugs that contain pseudoephedrine, such as Sudafed and Actifed.

The medicines would be kept behind a counter, and a customer would
have to produce a photo ID and sign a log for each purchase.

Customers also would be limited to 9 grams of the medicine, or about
300 pills, per month.

Sen. John Cauthorn, a Mexico Republican, said his bill would make it
more difficult for meth producers to buy large quantities of
over-the-counter pseudoephedrine pills and grind them to make meth.

Cauthorn's proposal is similar to measures proposed by lawmakers on
the federal level and in several other states, including Kansas. It
was modeled after an Oklahoma law that officials there say has reduced
meth-lab seizures 80 percent. Missouri led the nation in the number of
labs seized last year.

If approved, the bill would prohibit convenience stores and groceries
without pharmacies from selling the medicines. Liquid and
liquid-filled gel-cap medications, such as Nyquil, would not be
restricted under the proposal.

During discussion Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Graham, a Columbia Democrat,
said he supported the proposal but worried that lawmakers were not
doing enough to address what he called the root of the problem -- meth
addiction.

"We need to start dealing with this as an addiction problem, not a
problem with whether you can get this chemical or that chemical," he
said. "People will do anything to get this."

Graham said the policy simply might shift the problem to other states
and be a burden to cold sufferers.

Sen. Norma Champion, a Springfield Republican, said she thought
Missourians would rather be inconvenienced than live in a state full
of meth labs.

"Missouri is losing the war on meth," she said. "We have to have this
bill."

The Senate will have to vote on the bill again before it can be sent
to the House. Gov. Matt Blunt has said he supports the legislation.