REGULATION OF METH INGREDIENTS PROPOSED

HELENA - Montana lawmakers have long battled methamphetamine - that
cheap, homemade drug that leaves addicts skinny, aged and awake for
days.

But several legislators in the 2005 session are going after the drug
in a different way. They're trying to regulate the common, perfectly
legal substances that meth cooks use to make the drug.

Sen. Rick Laible, R-Victor, and Sen. Trudi Schmidt, D-Great Falls, are
backing a joint bill to regulate the sale of ephedrine, a substance
found in over-the-counter cold medicines like Sudafed, which is one of
the main ingredients in meth. Under their proposal, drugs containing
ingredient that can be used to make meth would be sold only at
pharmacies. Ephedrine products would no longer be publicly displayed
in stores, and store employees would have to hand consumers
ephedrine-containing drugs.

Consumers could buy only two packages at a time and would have to sign
for them. Only people 18 and older could buy ephedrine products.

"Right now, you can buy as much as you want and there's no control
over it," Laible said.

He said the bill is patterned after similar law in Oklahoma, which
resulted in a 50 percent drop in the number of meth labs there.

Sen. Jerry Black, R-Shelby, has a bill to make possession of anhydrous
ammonia a felony. Anhydrous ammonia is used as an industrial
fertilizer, and tanks of the stuff dot the state. But the chemical is
also used in meth production, although only in small quantities.

Black's bill would make it a felony to possess less than 1,000 gallons
of anhydrous ammonia, which would exempt farmers who use the product
on their crops.

Asked how the bill might affect the nonmeth cooking, nonfarming
segment of the population who might need something less than 1,000
gallons of anhydrous ammonia, Black said the product is not generally
used in backyard gardening and is already an ingredient in many
fertilizers that backyard gardeners can purchase. There's no reason
for nonfarmers to be driving around with anhydrous ammonia unless
they're cooking meth, he said.

"This isn't available in retail store," he said. "It's only used
for bulk fertilizer application."

And making drugs.