BLUNT PROPOSES BILL TO FIGHT METH

Gov. Matt Blunt has proposed restricting the sale of Sudafed and other
decongestants in order to combat methamphetamine production in the
state. Drugs such as Sudafed contain pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient
in methamphetamine production.

Headaches, congestion and runny noses might not be the only handicaps
common-cold sufferers face this winter if one of Gov. Matt Blunt's
proposals passes.

In an effort to eliminate the high number of methamphetamine labs in
Missouri, Blunt proposed a bill Friday that would limit the amount of
products containing pseudoephedrine and ephedrine consumers can
purchase. Common decongestants such as Sudafed include pseudoephedrine
and ephedrine.

The plan would place a 30-day limitation on customers, prohibiting
them from purchasing more than nine grams of pseudoephedrine products
a month -- about three boxes of cold-medication tablets.

Under the proposal, customers would be required to approach the
pharmacy, present identification and sign a written log when
purchasing Sudafed or similar products.

"You could take a pill twice a day for 30 days and still not hit nine
grams, if you took cold medicine as directed for a week," said Jerry
Dowell, a spokesman for Sen. John Cauthorn, R-Mexico. "We are being
more than fair with the amount of pseudoephedrine you could buy."

Cauthorn wrote Missouri's meth laws in 2002 and presented a bill
similar to Blunt's proposal to the Senate Judiciary and Civil and
Criminal Jurisprudence Committee on Monday night.

Blunt's and Cauthorn's proposals are based on an Oklahoma law enacted
in April that reduced meth-lab seizures by roughly 80 percent.

"What you're looking at is people in Oklahoma are going to start
crossing the border, coming into southern Missouri to get their
stuff," Dowell said. "It's going to become a problem for Midwestern
states. It's something that we need to do now."

Dowell said legislators in Iowa and Minnesota are considering similar
legislation.

With 2,860 meth-lab seizures, Missouri ranked highest in the nation in
2003.

Missouri had 1,600 more lab seizures than California in 2003 and last
year, the Missouri Highway Patrol conducted more than 19,000 meth
investigations, according to a news release from the governor's office.

Despite Missouri's high number of meth-lab seizures, some local
retailers worry limiting sales on nonprescription cold medications
places an unfair disadvantage on law-abiding citizens.

"There are hundreds of small towns around Missouri which do not have
24/7 access to a pharmacist," said Ron Leone, executive director of
the Missouri Petroleum and Convenience Store Association. "In those
communities, how do law-abiding, tax-paying citizens get to medication
for their flu symptoms or cold symptoms, say, at 3 o'clock in the morning?"

Convenience stores likely would be prohibited from selling
pseudoephedrine products. Blunt's proposal, however, only limits the
sale of starch-coated tablets. Liquid gel caps, children's medication
or liquid medication containing pseudoephedrine are exempt from the
bill because meth cannot be made from such products.

"There doesn't need to be 200 products that do exactly the same
thing," Dowell said. "If I can get the same relief from a gel cap.
cap I'm going to buy the gel cap."