Representative Yonts Offers Meth Proposal

• {Frankfort, Kentucky}...Over the past year Kentucky lawmakers have been debating whether to restrict sales of certain cold and allergy medications to people with prescriptions. The idea is expected to be considered again when they convene in January. Representative Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, offered a proposal Tuesday to fight methamphetamine abuse in Kentucky. Yonts says his plan would create a meth-offender registry to prevent more than 5,500 people with meth-related convictions from buying medications containing pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient in the making of meth, but it does not punish law-abiding citizens. If anyone on that computerized registry tries to purchase medications containing pseudoephedrine, police would be automatically alerted. It would limit the amount of pseudoephedrine that a person could purchase to 7.5 grams a month and 60 grams a year to prevent “smurfing,” the practice of sending others to purchase the medications to get around the limits. That would be roughly the equivalent to two boxes a month, or 20 per year.