State adds anti-meth measures

OLYMPIA – Gov. Christine Gregoire signed a bill Wednesday that aims to restrict access to methamphetamine ingredients by forcing stores to keep many cold and allergy medications behind pharmacy counters.

Washington joins Oregon, Oklahoma and several other states with similar restrictions.

The ingredients – pseudoephedrine, ephedrine and phenylpropanoline – are found in nonprescription cold and allergy medications. Store clerks would be required to ask for photo identification to ensure those purchasing the medication are at least 18. The ID and new storage requirements take effect Oct. 1. Customers would be limited to no more than two packages in a 24-hour period. Under previous law, three could be bought in that time. That portion of the law takes effect in July.

The measure will require that beginning Jan. 1, stores must keep a log noting who buys the products, in order to help law enforcement agencies identify people buying the medications in large quantities.

“We’re going to be one of the toughest in the nation and we’re going to protect our children and our citizens,” Gregoire said, surrounded by three dozen people including many residents and the mayor of Granite Falls.

Granite Falls was labeled “Methville” in a January 2003 Rolling Stone article, and the Oprah show recently was in town to film as part of a segment planned on nationwide use of meth.

Gregoire said that at one time, there was a meth lab in a residence near her home in rural Olympia. “Let us not think that any of us are immune from having a meth lab in our own back yard, putting ourselves and our children at risk,” she said.

Washington state ranks near the top of the country in the number of meth labs raided annually, even though last year the Department of Ecology reported a slight decline in the number of discovered labs. The department received reports of 1,337 methamphetamine lab sites across the state last year, a 9.6 percent decrease from 2003, when 1,480 sites were reported.

The highest concentrations of labs were in Pierce, King, Snohomish and Thurston counties.

Meth lab seizures have dropped more than 70 percent since Oklahoma put pseudoephedrine tablets behind pharmacy counters last year. Lab seizures are expected to decline another 15 percent under a law signed by the governor there last week, allwing the electronic tracking of pseudoephedrine sales. A similar bill died in the Idaho Legislature this year, but in addition to other states, Arkansas and Kansas adopted similar anti-meth laws this year. Missouri and Texas are considering their own legislation.

The meth bill is House Bill 2266.