I thought this was just another article on the war on some drugs. Then I read the sentence I highlighted. Where have we heard that before? What's next, are rural counties with meth problems going to sue the makers of Sudafed because they market their legal product? Whatever happened to personal responsibility?
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...adline=Police+want+restrictions+on+cold+pills
Police want restrictions on cold pills
By Matthew Hathaway
Of the Post-Dispatch
04/28/2004
KANSAS CITY, MO. – The debate over Missouri's growing methamphetamine problem took a major turn Wednesday, as police from around the state demanded that some common cold pills used to make the drug be classified as regulated narcotics available only at pharmacies.
At issue is a chemical called pseudoephedrine. It's an active ingredient in more than 80 over-the-counter remedies that are sold everywhere from gas stations to grocery stores. But pseudoephedrine also is a key ingredient in most recipes for meth, a powerful stimulant often called ice, crystal or crank.
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. As a result, meth cooks and their helpers now must shop at dozens of stores to get the thousands of pills needed to make even a few ounces of meth.
Police at the summit said that without tougher regulations, the explosive increase in small meth labs will continue in Missouri and throughout the Midwest. Although most of the nation's meth is made at a small number of large drug labs in Mexico and California, Missouri and the states it borders accounted for more than half of the meth-lab raids and related seizures last year.
The push to further restrict sales of the pills was made at the close of a four-day meth summit here, in a panel discussion attended by many of Missouri's top meth investigators and experts. Police said that Missouri must follow the lead of Oklahoma, which this month adopted a new law that labels 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.
Police concede that Oklahoma's law will inconvenience shoppers, but they say it is the only way to shut down Missouri drug labs.
"We have an epidemic, and epidemics call for drastic measures," said John Jordan, sheriff of Cape Girardeau County.
Jordan said that if Jefferson City lawmakers refuse to make pseudoephedrine a scheduled narcotic, they must think of a way to finance Missouri's meth war – a fight that is fought largely on federal funds that are expected to expire soon.
One federal-funded program struggling to find a new revenue source disposes of the hazardous ingredients and byproducts associated with meth, and trains police in how to safely dismantle drug labs. The program needs about $800,000 every year to keep operating. Federal funding for the effort, along with direct federal aid to Missouri drug task forces, is expected to end soon as Washington shifts more money to homeland security programs, said a top Missouri Highway Patrol officer.
But police say the need for funding those programs and general fears about the dangers that drug labs pose to meth cooks, their children and the police would disappear if Missouri followed Oklahoma's lead.
"You can't solve the problem of murder. You can't solve the problems of burglary or child abuse. But the meth-lab problem has an answer, and it's staring everyone in the face," said Detective Jason Grellner, commander of the Franklin County drug task force and a leader of the drive to regulate pseudoephedrine.
Grellner admits that there is no easy answer to the meth-use problem. He said that addicts will find meth no matter how cold pills are regulated, but that tight controls could force meth to be imported like cocaine and heroin. Labs would disappear and police would have more resources to fight meth trafficking, he said.
The Oklahoma law met with stiff opposition from pharmaceutical companies and industry groups, which contended that the tight controls would inconvenience law-abiding consumers who simply want to stay healthy. Critics of the law said that most meth is made from cold pills illegally smuggled from Mexico and Canada, and that this supply wouldn't be affected by making pseudoephedrine a scheduled narcotic.
But police attending the meth summit said that drug companies are looking to protect to profits, not people. The pharmaceutical industry has "a moral responsibility" to stop their products from being used to make meth, says Duane Nichols, who works for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in Kansas City.
Nichols said, "When do their concerns about market share cross the line into complicity? I don't know where that line is, but the pharmaceutical companies are close to it."
Although it's unlikely that Missouri legislators will take up the issue this year, police promised to press lawmakers to adopt the Oklahoma law next year. At a press conference here, Missouri Gov. Bob Holden, who organized the summit, endorsed the effort.
"We will continue to look at ways to tighten up our laws on meth ingredients," Holden said. "If we get legislation, I will support it."
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...adline=Police+want+restrictions+on+cold+pills
Police want restrictions on cold pills
By Matthew Hathaway
Of the Post-Dispatch
04/28/2004
KANSAS CITY, MO. – The debate over Missouri's growing methamphetamine problem took a major turn Wednesday, as police from around the state demanded that some common cold pills used to make the drug be classified as regulated narcotics available only at pharmacies.
At issue is a chemical called pseudoephedrine. It's an active ingredient in more than 80 over-the-counter remedies that are sold everywhere from gas stations to grocery stores. But pseudoephedrine also is a key ingredient in most recipes for meth, a powerful stimulant often called ice, crystal or crank.
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. As a result, meth cooks and their helpers now must shop at dozens of stores to get the thousands of pills needed to make even a few ounces of meth.
Police at the summit said that without tougher regulations, the explosive increase in small meth labs will continue in Missouri and throughout the Midwest. Although most of the nation's meth is made at a small number of large drug labs in Mexico and California, Missouri and the states it borders accounted for more than half of the meth-lab raids and related seizures last year.
The push to further restrict sales of the pills was made at the close of a four-day meth summit here, in a panel discussion attended by many of Missouri's top meth investigators and experts. Police said that Missouri must follow the lead of Oklahoma, which this month adopted a new law that labels 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.
Police concede that Oklahoma's law will inconvenience shoppers, but they say it is the only way to shut down Missouri drug labs.
"We have an epidemic, and epidemics call for drastic measures," said John Jordan, sheriff of Cape Girardeau County.
Jordan said that if Jefferson City lawmakers refuse to make pseudoephedrine a scheduled narcotic, they must think of a way to finance Missouri's meth war – a fight that is fought largely on federal funds that are expected to expire soon.
One federal-funded program struggling to find a new revenue source disposes of the hazardous ingredients and byproducts associated with meth, and trains police in how to safely dismantle drug labs. The program needs about $800,000 every year to keep operating. Federal funding for the effort, along with direct federal aid to Missouri drug task forces, is expected to end soon as Washington shifts more money to homeland security programs, said a top Missouri Highway Patrol officer.
But police say the need for funding those programs and general fears about the dangers that drug labs pose to meth cooks, their children and the police would disappear if Missouri followed Oklahoma's lead.
"You can't solve the problem of murder. You can't solve the problems of burglary or child abuse. But the meth-lab problem has an answer, and it's staring everyone in the face," said Detective Jason Grellner, commander of the Franklin County drug task force and a leader of the drive to regulate pseudoephedrine.
Grellner admits that there is no easy answer to the meth-use problem. He said that addicts will find meth no matter how cold pills are regulated, but that tight controls could force meth to be imported like cocaine and heroin. Labs would disappear and police would have more resources to fight meth trafficking, he said.
The Oklahoma law met with stiff opposition from pharmaceutical companies and industry groups, which contended that the tight controls would inconvenience law-abiding consumers who simply want to stay healthy. Critics of the law said that most meth is made from cold pills illegally smuggled from Mexico and Canada, and that this supply wouldn't be affected by making pseudoephedrine a scheduled narcotic.
But police attending the meth summit said that drug companies are looking to protect to profits, not people. The pharmaceutical industry has "a moral responsibility" to stop their products from being used to make meth, says Duane Nichols, who works for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in Kansas City.
Nichols said, "When do their concerns about market share cross the line into complicity? I don't know where that line is, but the pharmaceutical companies are close to it."
Although it's unlikely that Missouri legislators will take up the issue this year, police promised to press lawmakers to adopt the Oklahoma law next year. At a press conference here, Missouri Gov. Bob Holden, who organized the summit, endorsed the effort.
"We will continue to look at ways to tighten up our laws on meth ingredients," Holden said. "If we get legislation, I will support it."
When are people going to stand up and demand that this bull???? be stopped?