Missouri, seeing a big jump in meth labs, might require prescription for main feedstock

Missouri lawmakers spent four hours Wednesday hearing arguments for and against a law requiring prescriptions for pseudoephedrine, the decongestant that is the main feedstock for making methamphetamine. Missouri leads the nation in meth-lab busts, and once its 2009 total is tallied next month, it is expected to pass the 2008 total of 1,470 labs by more than 300, Christine Byers of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

The state House Crime Prevention Committee heard from lobbying interests on both sides, including the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which represents over-the-counter drug manufacturers. It argued that a prescription law would be unfair to the uninsured, "who might have to pay out of pocket to see a doctor when they needed a decongestant," Byers writes. The CHPA has offered to pay nearly $1 million for a computer database, similar to one in Kentucky, that would track when buyers reach the legal limit of about three boxes of pseudoephedrine in a 30-day period. (Read more)

Four small towns and one county in Missouri already require a prescription for cold medications containing pseudoephedrine. Those rural communities and others are some of the most vocal advocates of a state prescription law, Maria Altman of St. Louis Public Radio reports.