1-18-12 —  With Wayne County being one of the top five counties in Kentucky for  

meth production, this area was well represented for last Thursday's  

joint House and Judiciary committee meeting in Frankfort on the  

proposed "meth" bill.

    No action was taken Thursday to make Pseudoephedrine available by  

prescription only, but Operation UNITE Detec-tives and members of the  

Wayne and McCreary County Sheriff's Depart-ments, along with Monti-

cello and Somerset Police officers were all in attendance for the  

hearing.

    Thursday's presentation was an educational meeting for lawmakers and  

included expert testimony from across the country on requiring  

prescriptions for Pseudoephedrine.

    The general consensus among speakers was, not only did Kentucky need  

the restriction, but it was also what our nation needed to solve the  

meth problem.

    A law enforcement officer from Oklahoma told of his state's need for  

the required prescription, saying their tracking system on  

Pseudoephedrine and an offender registry was not effective and that  

Oklahoma was still seeing an increase in meth labs.

    The Narcotics Director from Mississippi relayed a "positive" saying  

that since Mississippi had implemented "Pseudoephedrine by  

prescription only" in July 2010, their number of meth labs had  

decreased 67 percent.

    Another speaker told of increased numbers of admissions to hospitals  

and rehabs in the past three years because of meth.

    Committee members also heard a "One Step Misery" meth awareness  

presentation and viewed Nightline's recent feature on Operation UNITE  

conducting surveillance of Pseudoephedrine buys, meth labs being  

found and neutralized, and an actual meth bust in Wayne County.

    Kentucky is ranked fourth in the Nation for meth production and is  

known as "Ground Zero."

    Number one ranked Tennessee and other states including Missouri,  

Indiana and Illinois are waiting to see what action will be taken by  

our state's governing body before filing bills to require  

prescriptions for Pseudoephedrine in their respective states.

    It's estimated now that seven out of 10 people buying  

Pseudoephedrine are buying it either to "cook" themselves or they're  

selling the Pseudo for five to seven times what it's worth to others  

who manufacture meth.

    Prescription only sales of Pseudoephedrine has been debated since  

last years legislative session. It simply did not gain enough support  

in 2011 to become law.

    If passed, the restriction would reportedly only affect 15 medicines  

containing Pseudoephedrine "the main ingredient for making meth" and  

there is no substitute." There would still be at least another 137  

over the counter alternatives for cold and allergy sufferers.

    With no vote being taken on Thursday, the final outcome on the meth  

bill during this legislative is still unknown.