Talent aims for federal version of state meth law

Talent aims for federal version of state meth law
City detective sees communications gap in statute.

By SARA AGNEW of the Tribune’s staff
Published Saturday, December 3, 2005

U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., stopped in Columbia yesterday to assure local law enforcement officials that federal help is on the way in the fight against methamphetamine.
In a news conference at the Columbia Police Department, Talent said he hopes a bill he co-sponsored to limit the sale of over-the-counter cold remedies will become law by the end of the year.
"This will raise the visibility of methamphetamine on a federal level," Talent told about a dozen local law enforcement officials. "Meth is the single worst drug threat I’ve ever seen."
The Combat Meth Act would restrict all forms of pseudoephedrine, including those in gel and liquid forms. Customers would be limited to buying 7.5 grams - or about 250 30-milligram pills - in a 30-day period. Consumers would have to show photo IDs and sign logs, and computer tracking would prevent customers from exceeding the limit at other stores. The bill also would provide for rapid-response teams that could help children endangered by meth abuse.
Talent estimated that the annual cost of enacting the bill would be about $120 million.
Giving pharmacies a way of sharing information might address the problem Columbia police Detective Ron Hall said he sees with a meth law enacted this summer in Missouri.
The state law, which took effect July 15, restricts the amount of pseudoephedrine a person can buy to no more than 9 grams every 30 days. That’s about three 100-count boxes of 30-milligram-strength Sudafed.
Under the federal bill, the medicine would be required to be kept in a restricted area.
Like the proposed federal bill, the state law requires customers to show picture IDs and sign logbooks. However, the state law only applies to the pill form of the medicine, not gel caps or liquids, and it doesn’t give stores any way to communicate their sales with one another.
In other words, a consumer can go from store to store, buying his or her 30-day limit at each.
"There’s just no way" for the stores to share information, said Hall, who is a member of the Mid-Missouri Unified Strike Team and Narcotics Group, a multiagency drug enforcement group. Buyers "can hit up more than one store."
Columbia Police Chief Randy Boehm said that overall, the new state law appears to be working well, but "it’s still too early to tell."
In 2004, federal drug officials reported 2,788 meth labs were discovered in Missouri - more than in any other state - which was 16 percent of all labs seized in the nation.
In Boone County, 24 labs were busted in 2002, eight in 2003 and 14 in 2004.
Hall said that in Columbia, 11 labs were found in 2004 and seven have been busted so far this year.
"It looks like the legislation slows it down," he said.
Talent said the federal bill would increase sentencing for drug kingpins and crack down on imports of pseudoephedrine. The proposed bill is tied to the Patriot Act, which Talent said has been somewhat controversial but a bill "everyone wants to pass."

"Let's contact our state representatives, congressmen, and senators and make them aware of what is going on out here!! We need laws, intervention programs, federal and private funding for treatment centers and more people to be involved with foster care in addition to state agencies. This is an incredibly large problem that can't be overlooked or swept under the rug! Let's be radical and start a grass movement!"

Kim