Yes, meth is devastating many areas in the midwest. Yes, the labs are hazardous waste sites. Yes, the users develop paranoia and are dangerous. No, I don't want to go get a prescription for OTC cold medicine. Did you have to have a prescription to buy sugar and yeast during prohibition? How much more freedom are you willing to give up?
Jeff
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...nDocument&Headline=Convenience+and+priorities
Convenience and priorities
By Matthew Hathaway
Of the Post-Dispatch
03/29/2004
Police and prosecutors in Missouri and Illinois say it's time for tough measures in their fight against the increasing production of the illegal drug methamphetamine.
One of their targets is a little pill many people take to relieve the common cold.
Across the Midwest, anti-meth crusaders are drawing attention to pseudoephedrine. It's an active ingredient in more than 80 over-the-counter cold remedies and an essential ingredient in most recipes for meth, a powerful stimulant often called ice, crystal or crank.
Police contend that easy access to pseudoephedrine pills - which are sold everywhere from gas stations to grocery stores - has contributed to an explosive increase in small meth labs throughout the nation's heartland. Most of the nation's meth is made at a small number of "super labs" in Mexico and California. But Missouri and the states it borders accounted for more than half of the meth-lab raids and related seizures last year.
Although meth also can be made using the chemicals ephedrine and phenyl-2-propanone, those ingredients are closely monitored and tough to get in significant quantities. Police say most of the meth made at Midwestern labs comes from pseudoephedrine, legally bought by small-time meth-lab operators.
Last week, the Oklahoma Senate unanimously approved legislation that would label most pseudoephedrine remedies "scheduled narcotics," sold only at pharmacies and only if customers agree to have the purchases - and their identities - recorded in a statewide database. The bill has the support of the governor. It would become the nation's toughest state law governing a meth ingredient.
Iowa's Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack proposed similar restrictions this year, but legislators rejected the idea. Lawmakers in Minnesota this month voted down a ban on pseudoephedrine sales to minors, and scaled back other proposed regulations. In both states, supporters of the measures said the efforts were defeated after heavy lobbying by industry groups representing pharmaceutical companies and retailers. Opponents say the regulations are an inconvenience to consumers and offer no lasting solution to the meth problem.
The leading manufacturer of pseudoephedrine products believes that the proposed restrictions in Oklahoma are misguided.
"I'm not sure that legislators understood they're basically putting the entire cold aisle behind the counter," said Jay Kosminsky, a spokesman for Pfizer Inc., the manufacturer of Sudafed cold remedies. "The fact is this is going to get between sick people and their medicines."
Backers of tough restrictions don't dispute that. One Southern Illinois prosecutor says reducing the number of meth labs - and the related injuries suffered by addicts, their children and the police who raid the environmentally toxic labs - should be a more important public health priority. Wayne County, Ill., State's Attorney Kevin Kakac said he wants Illinois to be the first state to make pseudoephedrine a prescription product.
"Would it be unfortunate for the common hay fever sufferer? I guess so," Kakac said. "But when you compare it to the price we're paying for the meth scourge, it may be worth it."
Kakac said that despite a national reduction in crime, the number of felonies he prosecutes has nearly doubled since the late 1990s. He blames the highly addictive meth and the abundant supply of its ingredients. He said addiction to the drug can eventually turn meth users into meth cooks.
Illinois has no state laws governing the sale of meth-ingredient cold pills.
Missouri last year toughened existing regulations on how much pseudoephedrine a store could sell to an individual customer, and added new restrictions on where those cold pills could be displayed. Drug investigators say those laws do little to curb the drug's production. Nothing prevents meth cooks from visiting dozens of stores to get the thousands of pills needed to make even a few ounces of meth.
Several books offer meth recipes, and others are found on the Internet. Many recipes share an ingredient list that can be filled legally in an afternoon of shopping. The sole ingredient that is difficult to buy - the farm fertilizer anhydrous ammonia - can be easily stolen, and not every recipe calls for it.
As a result, lawmakers have honed in on pseudoephedrine as the one ingredient essential to nearly all recipes. But the architect of Missouri's current cold-pill restrictions, Franklin County Sheriff's Detective Jason Grellner, said they do little to curb the supply of meth. Grellner said he will advocate a law similar to the Oklahoma legislation - if not an even stricter one - next month at a statewide meth summit in Kansas City.
Grellner said the issue came up recently at a high school in Sullivan, where he was talked about the dangers of meth.
"This little girl in the ninth grade asks me, 'If everyone makes meth from pseudoephedrine, why doesn't the government ban it?'" Grellner said. "Out of the mouths of babes."
More colds or more meth?
The Drug Enforcement Administration says the amount of pseudoephedrine legally imported by drug companies has increased from 544,227 pounds in 1990 to 1,512,782 pounds last year, a 178 percent increase.
The DEA says much of that increase might be explained by an increase in legitimate use, both by cold sufferers and by drug companies that are using pseudoephedrine in products that used to include more regulated chemicals.
Many in law enforcement argue that increase is a result of the proliferation of meth labs, particularly in the Midwest.
"The fact is there aren't that many more sniffles now than 10 years ago," said John Duncan, chief agent for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. He said that what he saw as the legal drug industry's unwillingness to act - even in the wake of a high-profile, videotaped killing of a Oklahoma state trooper by a meth cook - forced the state to act.
"If we leave it to the industry to regulate themselves, they won't do a damned thing except reap more profits," Duncan said.
Kosminsky, the Pfizer spokesman, said the company is working to develop pseudoephedrine medications that can't easily be converted into meth. But, he said, "the science just isn't there yet ... and it's tough to know how close we are."
A growing number of drug investigators say cutting off the supply of pseudoephedrine will make it virtually impossible for most criminals to make meth. But it's not likely that federal authorities will add more restrictions on the retail sales of the cold pills.
In 2002, Rep. Marion Berry, D-Ark., introduced legislation that would have made pseudoephedrine available only by prescription. Berry is a pharmacist-turned-politician who said the move would hurt meth cooks. The bill died in committee.
On the federal level, White House drug czar John Walters said the Bush administration won't propose new federal restrictions on the retail sale of pseudoephedrine.
Walters said that pseudoephedrine offers "an enormous, legitimate benefit" and that there's no reason to inconvenience people in states where meth production isn't a problem. But Walters said the White House doesn't object to states developing their own restrictions on cold pills.
The Oklahoma House is expected to vote on the proposed restrictions this week. Gov. Brad Henry, a Democrat, is so confident that an official said he has set the bill signing for April 5.
Grellner said he hopes such a law in Oklahoma would spur Missouri, Illinois and eventually the federal government into passing similar laws.
"This is just like dominoes. If one state does it, Missouri and some others are going to follow suit. And then, Washington is going to have to step in with a federal standard," he said. "After all, meth isn't a problem that's going away."
Reporter Matthew Hathaway
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 636-500-4108
Jeff
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...nDocument&Headline=Convenience+and+priorities
Convenience and priorities
By Matthew Hathaway
Of the Post-Dispatch
03/29/2004
Police and prosecutors in Missouri and Illinois say it's time for tough measures in their fight against the increasing production of the illegal drug methamphetamine.
One of their targets is a little pill many people take to relieve the common cold.
Across the Midwest, anti-meth crusaders are drawing attention to pseudoephedrine. It's an active ingredient in more than 80 over-the-counter cold remedies and an essential ingredient in most recipes for meth, a powerful stimulant often called ice, crystal or crank.
Police contend that easy access to pseudoephedrine pills - which are sold everywhere from gas stations to grocery stores - has contributed to an explosive increase in small meth labs throughout the nation's heartland. Most of the nation's meth is made at a small number of "super labs" in Mexico and California. But Missouri and the states it borders accounted for more than half of the meth-lab raids and related seizures last year.
Although meth also can be made using the chemicals ephedrine and phenyl-2-propanone, those ingredients are closely monitored and tough to get in significant quantities. Police say most of the meth made at Midwestern labs comes from pseudoephedrine, legally bought by small-time meth-lab operators.
Last week, the Oklahoma Senate unanimously approved legislation that would label most pseudoephedrine remedies "scheduled narcotics," sold only at pharmacies and only if customers agree to have the purchases - and their identities - recorded in a statewide database. The bill has the support of the governor. It would become the nation's toughest state law governing a meth ingredient.
Iowa's Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack proposed similar restrictions this year, but legislators rejected the idea. Lawmakers in Minnesota this month voted down a ban on pseudoephedrine sales to minors, and scaled back other proposed regulations. In both states, supporters of the measures said the efforts were defeated after heavy lobbying by industry groups representing pharmaceutical companies and retailers. Opponents say the regulations are an inconvenience to consumers and offer no lasting solution to the meth problem.
The leading manufacturer of pseudoephedrine products believes that the proposed restrictions in Oklahoma are misguided.
"I'm not sure that legislators understood they're basically putting the entire cold aisle behind the counter," said Jay Kosminsky, a spokesman for Pfizer Inc., the manufacturer of Sudafed cold remedies. "The fact is this is going to get between sick people and their medicines."
Backers of tough restrictions don't dispute that. One Southern Illinois prosecutor says reducing the number of meth labs - and the related injuries suffered by addicts, their children and the police who raid the environmentally toxic labs - should be a more important public health priority. Wayne County, Ill., State's Attorney Kevin Kakac said he wants Illinois to be the first state to make pseudoephedrine a prescription product.
"Would it be unfortunate for the common hay fever sufferer? I guess so," Kakac said. "But when you compare it to the price we're paying for the meth scourge, it may be worth it."
Kakac said that despite a national reduction in crime, the number of felonies he prosecutes has nearly doubled since the late 1990s. He blames the highly addictive meth and the abundant supply of its ingredients. He said addiction to the drug can eventually turn meth users into meth cooks.
Illinois has no state laws governing the sale of meth-ingredient cold pills.
Missouri last year toughened existing regulations on how much pseudoephedrine a store could sell to an individual customer, and added new restrictions on where those cold pills could be displayed. Drug investigators say those laws do little to curb the drug's production. Nothing prevents meth cooks from visiting dozens of stores to get the thousands of pills needed to make even a few ounces of meth.
Several books offer meth recipes, and others are found on the Internet. Many recipes share an ingredient list that can be filled legally in an afternoon of shopping. The sole ingredient that is difficult to buy - the farm fertilizer anhydrous ammonia - can be easily stolen, and not every recipe calls for it.
As a result, lawmakers have honed in on pseudoephedrine as the one ingredient essential to nearly all recipes. But the architect of Missouri's current cold-pill restrictions, Franklin County Sheriff's Detective Jason Grellner, said they do little to curb the supply of meth. Grellner said he will advocate a law similar to the Oklahoma legislation - if not an even stricter one - next month at a statewide meth summit in Kansas City.
Grellner said the issue came up recently at a high school in Sullivan, where he was talked about the dangers of meth.
"This little girl in the ninth grade asks me, 'If everyone makes meth from pseudoephedrine, why doesn't the government ban it?'" Grellner said. "Out of the mouths of babes."
More colds or more meth?
The Drug Enforcement Administration says the amount of pseudoephedrine legally imported by drug companies has increased from 544,227 pounds in 1990 to 1,512,782 pounds last year, a 178 percent increase.
The DEA says much of that increase might be explained by an increase in legitimate use, both by cold sufferers and by drug companies that are using pseudoephedrine in products that used to include more regulated chemicals.
Many in law enforcement argue that increase is a result of the proliferation of meth labs, particularly in the Midwest.
"The fact is there aren't that many more sniffles now than 10 years ago," said John Duncan, chief agent for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. He said that what he saw as the legal drug industry's unwillingness to act - even in the wake of a high-profile, videotaped killing of a Oklahoma state trooper by a meth cook - forced the state to act.
"If we leave it to the industry to regulate themselves, they won't do a damned thing except reap more profits," Duncan said.
Kosminsky, the Pfizer spokesman, said the company is working to develop pseudoephedrine medications that can't easily be converted into meth. But, he said, "the science just isn't there yet ... and it's tough to know how close we are."
A growing number of drug investigators say cutting off the supply of pseudoephedrine will make it virtually impossible for most criminals to make meth. But it's not likely that federal authorities will add more restrictions on the retail sales of the cold pills.
In 2002, Rep. Marion Berry, D-Ark., introduced legislation that would have made pseudoephedrine available only by prescription. Berry is a pharmacist-turned-politician who said the move would hurt meth cooks. The bill died in committee.
On the federal level, White House drug czar John Walters said the Bush administration won't propose new federal restrictions on the retail sale of pseudoephedrine.
Walters said that pseudoephedrine offers "an enormous, legitimate benefit" and that there's no reason to inconvenience people in states where meth production isn't a problem. But Walters said the White House doesn't object to states developing their own restrictions on cold pills.
The Oklahoma House is expected to vote on the proposed restrictions this week. Gov. Brad Henry, a Democrat, is so confident that an official said he has set the bill signing for April 5.
Grellner said he hopes such a law in Oklahoma would spur Missouri, Illinois and eventually the federal government into passing similar laws.
"This is just like dominoes. If one state does it, Missouri and some others are going to follow suit. And then, Washington is going to have to step in with a federal standard," he said. "After all, meth isn't a problem that's going away."
Reporter Matthew Hathaway
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 636-500-4108
