PLAN LIMITS DRUGS WITH EPHEDRINE HEALTH BOARD MOVE TARGETS METHAMPHETAMINE
MAKERS

The Lubbock Board of Health voted to draft an ordinance that would limit
the sales of over-the-counter drugs used in methamphetamine production.

Since October, the board has discussed possible solutions to curbing the
sales of such drugs containing ephedrine, used in common cold remedies.

At Friday's meeting, health department director Tommy Camden presented
board members with an ordinance draft that pulled most of its ideas from
bills in the Texas Senate and House.

"If you have been following the news media lately, you'll have seen some of
these headlines," Camden said as he flashed methamphetamine news headlines
on the projector screen. "Lubbock is not unique to this. It's occurring all
over."

The new ordinance would make it unlawful for retailers to sell more than
three packages of ephedrine-containing drugs at a time to a customer, sell
single packages that contain more than three grams, sell the drugs to
people under 18, or sell a person more than nine grams over 30 days, he said.

The ordinance would require pharmacists to keep these drugs behind the
checkout counter, inside a locked display case or within six feet of an
unobstructed view of a clerk, he said.

"There's also a provision in this that's pretty controversial and is up for
discussion that will prohibit sales by businesses that don't have a
pharmacy license," he said. "That would probably take some of the products
off the shelves of our corner stores."

The problem faced by the ordinance is that any state laws regarding the
sales of these drugs may pre-empt the city proposal, he said.

Bonner Bennett, a local activist who is also the chairman of the Community
Relations Task Force, presented the board with the possibility of the
ordinance in October.

He said that though the ordinance might be pre-empted by state law and
might upset some businesses, keeping the drugs behind lock and key or
counters would help businesses since most of the drugs used for meth
production are pilfered anyway.

"The more difficult you make it, the more you take it out of walking
distance, it's still cutting down the problem," Bennett said. "My point is
we've got to start somewhere. This is an inexpensive way of doing this.

"In the meantime, meth is causing more and more problems by wrecking lives
and causing problems in our schools."

The possibility of putting drugs behind the counter caused some
consternation with board member Dr. Donald R. May.

"This is a war on drugs," May said. "We're being too nice. Until we take on
these drug dealers and take drug labs and get them off the streets, we're
not going to do anything."

Drug dealers could either buy from Mexico or Canada off the Internet, he
said. The problem may best be solved by getting tougher on crime and
offering harsher punishments to drug offenders.

Also, he feared the ordinance would add an increase to the price of the
product, he said.

In other news, four more syphilis cases cropped up in Lubbock during
December, according to Tigi Ward, public health coordinator-surveillance.

The cases, two males, a female and a baby, were unrelated. One of the male
cases was related to the two cases found in October, she said. The baby's
case was congenital, passed down from the one female case, she said.

Also, the board elected to ask the City Council to increase its size from
seven to nine members.