MISSOURI SENATE PANEL MULLS BILL RESTRICTING PSEUDOEPHEDRINE

JEFFERSON CITY AD Methamphetamine cooks call it "smurfing."

These drug makers drive to stores buying two boxes of Sudafed at a time
until they get enough pseudoephedrine to make meth.

It's something that police could catch if Missouri adopted a measure
similar to a law that Oklahoma passed recently, law enforcement officials
told a Senate committee Monday night. The Senate Judiciary Committee was
hearing two bills that are similar to the law in Oklahoma, which says that

only pharmacists can sell pseudoephedrine products like Sudafed.

The Oklahoma law also requires purchasers to show photo identification and
sign a log book to buy the products.

Lawmakers in Kansas and some two dozen other states are considering similar
measures.

Maj. James Keathley of the Missouri Highway Patrol told senators that the
effects of methamphetamine are filling prisons and exhausting state resources.

Law enforcement officials praised the Oklahoma law, which has been credited
with reducing the number of meth lab seizures in that state by 8 percent.

Not all who testified had good things to say about the proposals, however.

Lobbyists for Missouri retailers and convenience stores opposed the bill,
saying it would burden their customers.

Kevin Kraushaar, vice president of the Consumer Healthcare Products
Association, a national organization that represents makers of
over-the-counter medications like Sudafed, also testified against the bill.

Kraushaar said other states, including California and Washington, have
greatly reduced meth lab seizures without using Oklahoma's approach. Those
states have systems to track wholesale and retail purchases of
pseudoephedrine, unlike Missouri and some other states that limit retail
purchases.

Kraushaar said the Oklahoma law is onerous AD for the consumer and the
pharmacist.

We don't think that having a pharmacist tied up on a $6 box of Sudafed is a
very good use of the pharmacist's time,94 he told senators.

Some senators on the committee expressed reservations about following
Oklahoma's lead.

Some pointed out that many pharmacies don't stay open late, especially in
smaller communities. Sen. John Loudon, a St. Louis County Republican, said
the bill would affect those who need medicine late at night.

The committee took no action on the bills, SB 1 and 7.