Thursday, November 30, 2006
Contact: Brian Hauswirth, 573-751-0290
Blunt Marks Meth Awareness Day; Highlights Missouri’s Efforts to Defeat Meth Scourge
JEFFERSON CITY–Gov. Matt Blunt today marked National Meth Awareness Day by thanking Missouri law enforcement officials, pharmacists and consumers for working together to help eradicate this addictive drug.
“Meth destroys lives, rips apart families and is damaging to our communities. With the help of Missouri’s law enforcement community, pharmacists and consumers we are seeing positive results in our efforts to defeat meth,” Blunt said. “By working together we have watched as meth incidents across our state have decreased, but our fight to defeat this pervasive epidemic must not stop.”
Blunt signed legislation in June 2005 designed to keep the key ingredients needed to produce the addictive drug out of the hands of meth producers. The legislation makes products containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine controlled substances and moves them behind pharmacy counters. Individuals are now required to show photo identification before purchasing products containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine and are limited to how much of the products they can purchase each month. Under the legislation pharmacies are required to maintain purchase logs and make them available for inspection to law enforcement officers.
The new law and availability of the purchase records have aided local law enforcement teams in several meth arrests and investigations.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) reported that since Missouri’s new meth law took effect in July 2005, meth incidents have declined an average of 42 percent. Meth incidents include chemical, equipment and glassware seizures, and dumpsites that have been identified by the MSHP.
In 2004 meth incidents in Missouri totaled 2,788; in 2005 meth incidents totaled 2,252. As of September 30th the MSHP reported 1,029 meth incidents for the year.
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