TALENT AIMS FOR FEDERAL VERSION OF STATE METH LAW

City Detective Sees Communications Gap In Statute

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."