Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Contact: Jessica Robinson, (573)751-0290
As Promised, Blunt Responds to Methamphetamine Epidemic
Bills Limit Access to Meth Ingredients
JEFFERSON CITY—Gov. Matt Blunt today signed into law HB 441 and SB 10, which will help take the tools of the trade out of the hands of methamphetamine (meth) makers.
"I said it was time to get serious about fighting meth and am pleased to sign legislation today that will halt the supply source of meth labs," Blunt said. "These bills will keep the key ingredients needed to make meth - ephedrine and pseudoephedrine - out of the hands of drug manufacturers and, by so doing, will put them out of business. I commend the General Assembly, law enforcement agencies and community leaders for joining me in a commitment to fight Missouri's meth epidemic."
The legislation limits meth producers' access to ingredients used to make the deadly drug by:
- Making products containing pseudoephedrine and combination products containing ephedrine schedule V controlled substances (Compounds in liquid or liquid capsule form, like liquid gel caps, would be exempt because meth cannot be readily manufactured from these products.)
- Requiring those drugs to be kept behind a pharmacy counter and sold only by pharmacists or pharmaceutical technicians
- Requiring individuals wishing to purchase those products to show a photo identification card
- Limiting the quantity of pseudoephedrine and combination ephedrine/pseudoephedrine products individuals can buy per month to 9 grams (3 normal sized boxes of cold tablets)
- Requiring pharmacies to maintain purchase logs and make them available for inspection to law enforcement officers
The legislation is modeled after a law that took effect in Okla. last April. Since the inception of the Okla. law, meth incidents in the state have declined by 35 percent.
While such a reduction won't cure all of our state's ills, it would represent the most progress made to date and would allow overburdened law enforcement officers to concentrate resources on a smaller pool of meth producers.
For the last several years, Missouri has been one of the top meth producing states in the nation. In 2003, Missouri had 2,860 meth incidents, 1,600 more than California, the second highest state that year, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the meth incidents in the country. Last year, the Missouri Highway Patrol conducted more than 1,900 meth investigations.