Organization wants to restrict sale of meth ingredients
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The group has introduced a resolution to the Warren County Commission designed to restrict and track the sale of over-the-counter ingredients used in the production of meth, particularly ephedrine and pseudoephedrine.
SOCM has been involved in similar resolutions which have been passed by the city of Cookeville and Cumberland County. SOCM (pronounced SOCK’EM) hopes these resolutions will aid in the passage of Tennessee State Senate bill SBO469 introduced by state Sen. Charlotte Burks.
This bill, which passed the Senate last May, would make it an offense to sell more than three packages, or any amount of packages that contain a total of more than nine grams of these substances, if it passes through the rest of the legislature and is signed into law in Tennessee.
Local SOCM member Crickett Keener said the group has become involved, at least in part, because of how the meth epidemic has affected Tennessee families.
“Homes have been broken up,” Keener said. “And there’s getting to be so many foster children from this, where the parents are in jail. In fact, I have two friends right now who are raising grandbabies because of their daughter being in.”
Though there is state legislation in the works, SOCM hopes to move things along with local lawmakers, in essence getting a head start on the problem. The group has passed out petitions in Warren County and has gathered a significant number of signatures.
“On our petitions we have several hundred signatures,” Keener said, “and we hope to get several hundred more.”
The SOCM petition asks county legislators to pass a resolution regulating the sale of ephedrine products by:
1. Limiting the sale of products containing ephedrine to packages, or any number of packages, that contain a combined total of 100 tablets.
2. Requiring retailers to keep ephedrine products behind a counter or within six feet of a register.
3. Requiring identification and written documentation of any person buying ephedrine products.
Keener said a few local retailers are already doing some of these things, but SOCM feels if all businesses are required to provide this type of information to the proper authorities on a monthly basis, since it will show if one individual is making multiple purchases, it might result in both the capture of meth producers and a general reduction in meth production, since producers would eventually have to travel significant distances to obtain materials.