JACKSON - Mississippi is a step closer to adopting stiffer laws to combat its escalating methamphetamine problem.
Gov. Haley Barbour has been sent a bill that would require retailers to store cold medicines containing a key ingredient used to make the illicit drug in locked display cases, behind the counter, within 30 feet of a store cashier or under video surveillance.
Barbour is expected to sign the legislation. He has until Thursday to act.
The bill is not as restrictive as initial legislation filed in the Senate, which only allowed a pharmacist or pharmacist technician to sell cold medicine containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. That bill was patterned after an Oklahoma law.
"I supported the dispensation under a pharmacist's direction because that was best. But this will help," said Rep. Tommy Reynolds, D-Water Valley. "We don't need to pull any punches on crystal meth because it is devastating our young people."
The bill sent to the governor also limits the amount of the cold tablets sold to a customer to no more than two packages per transaction or six grams of pseudoephedrine or ephedrine.
A retailer who violates the law could face a misdemeanor charge. Retailers caught making "backdoor sales" of the tablets by the caseload could face a felony charge, said Sen. Sidney Albritton, R-Picayune.
Under the legislation, the Bureau of Narcotics may develop a program to inform retailers about the methamphetamine problem in the state and provide ways to report suspicious activity.
Meth is a highly addictive and potent powder "cooked" from such common ingredients as ammonia, lithium from car batteries and pseudoephedrine. After snorting, eating or injecting the drug, users experience rushes of energy and euphoria. The drug's effects can last for hours.
Meth creates the potential for explosions and contamination because of the combustible ingredients used to manufacture it.
Albritton, a former state narcotics agent, said lawmakers met with pharmacists, retailers and Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics agents before assembling the compromise bill.
MBN agents told lawmakers that 90 percent of the clandestine labs in Mississippi use cold tablets as the only active ingredients, Albritton said.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
