Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is again calling on requiring a prescription for certain cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in making methamphetamine. KSMU’s Scott Harvey reports.
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Speaking Monday before the Missouri Sheriff’s Association, which is holding their summer training conference this week in Springfield, Koster said that “continued inaction is allowing for a flourishing meth trade in this state.”
He said that with some counties and cities enacting prescription requirements on the drug, there has been a decline in cases, but more needs to be done. Koster is pushing the General Assembly to pass a statewide prescription requirement, noting that “we need to cut off their supply chain.”
In 2012, there were 1,985 meth incidents in Missouri, including lab seizures and dumpsite discoveries. Through March of this year, the latest figures available from the state Highway Patrol, there had been 480 such incidents.
A vote on a prescription-only bill has yet to be decided by the Springfield City Council. Councilman Doug Burlison is pushing that the issue be put before a public vote. Similar measures have been approved in Ozark, Branson, Hollister and Joplin.
Koster also offered an interpretation of a new law that requires every sheriff to maintain, house, and issue concealed carry permits beginning January 1. Earlier this month, Gov. Nixon signed SB 75, passed by the legislature amid the controversy surrounding the Department of Revenue’s scanning of source documents. The law transfers the concealed carry weapon permitting process from DOR to the county sheriffs.
“We’re going to do everything we can to make certain that there is no gap in the law. That no gap occurs, and that to the extent, to the greatest extent possible, the sheriffs are able to exercise discretion, and we believe that we have language in the statute that will support our decision that will allow you to reach in with discretion from Aug. 28 forward,” Koster said.
The Missouri Sheriff’s Association’s Summer Training Conference in Springfield runs through Aug. 1.