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ST. LOUIS NEWS TODAY - Sunday, January 23, 2005
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Missouri Legislation to Fight Meth Production
ST. LOUIS, (SLFP.com) January 23, 2005 - Honoring a campaign pledge he made last September, Missouri Governor Matt Blunt has announced that he has secured bipartisan support in the Missouri General Assembly of legislation that will halt the supply source of methamphetamine labs.
The bill being drafted at Blunts request will help hinder meth cookers' access to ingredients used to make the deadly drug by:
- Making products containing pseudoephederin and combination products containing ephedrine schedule V controlled substances
- Requiring those drugs to be kept behind a pharmacy counter and sold only by pharmacists or pharmaceutical technicians
- Requiring individuals wishing to purchase those products to show a photo identification card and to sign a written log
- Limiting the quantity of pseudoephederine and combination ephedrine/pseudoephederine products individuals can buy per month to 9 grams (3 normal sized boxes of cold tablets)
- Requiring pharmacies to maintain purchase logs and make them available for inspection to law enforcement officers
Blunt's proposal is modeled after a law that took effect in Oklahoma last April.
Since the inception of that law, meth incidents in the state have declined by 80 percent. For the last several years, Missouri has been one of the top meth producing states in the nation.
In 2003, Missouri had 2,860 meth incidents, 1,600 more than California, the second highest state that year, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the meth incidents in the country. Last year, the Missouri Highway Patrol conducted more than 19,000 meth investigations.
Little Optimism But Much Idealism for Iraq After the Elections
ST. LOUIS, (SLFP.com) January 23, 2005 - Public attitudes toward the upcoming elections in Iraq are decidedly mixed, according to a new Harris Poll.
Only a third (34%) of the U.S. public believes the situation in Iraq will improve after the elections, and less than a third (28%) believes that the elections will lead to a reasonably free and democratic system of government. Less than a quarter (24%) of the public thinks that Iraq will be a model which will help spread freedom and democracy in the Middle East. And less than one in five believes that the elections will enable most U.S. troops to leave Iraq in the next year (18%), or that there will be a reduction in the number of attacks on U.S. troops there (17%).
These are some of the findings of a nationwide Harris Poll of 2,209 U.S. adults surveyed online by Harris Interactive(R) between January 11 and 16, 2005.
Other results of this survey include:
- While only 15 percent of all adults believe that the elected Iraqi
government will be a close ally of the United States, a 55 percent
majority believes that it will be either a close ally or friendly to
the U.S.
- Republicans are much more optimistic than Democrats or Independents.
Fully 66 percent of Republicans believe that the situation in Iraq will
be better after the elections but only 16 percent of Democrats and 28
percent of Independents believe this.
While most people are not optimistic about the future of Iraq, very large majorities believe that trying to promote democracy in Iraq is a desirable goal even if a democratic Iraqi government turns out to be unfriendly to the United States. Specifically:
- A large 71 to 29 percent majority of the public believes that it is
more important to have an elected, democratic Iraqi government than to
have one which is friendly to this country.
- An overwhelming 90 to 10 percent majority believes that even if the
elected Iraqi government is unfriendly to the United States, the U.S.
should try to work with that government and not try to change it to one
that is more friendly.
The Harris Poll(R) was conducted online within the United States between January 11 and 16, 2005 among a nationwide cross section of 2,209 adults (aged 18 and over).
Missouri to Require Chickenpox Vaccine for School Attendance
JEFFERSON CITY, (SLFP.com) January 23, 2005 - Missouri will be joining thirty-nine other states by requiring children who attend kindergarten beginning with the 2005-06 school year to be vaccinated against chickenpox (varicella).
"Chickenpox is a highly contagious disease that is usually mild, but it can result in severe complications and even death," stated to Ron Cates, interim director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS).
Children will be required to have the vaccine or reliable proof that they have had the disease in order to attend school. They can obtain the vaccine from their private health care provider or from their local health department. DHSSÕs rule requiring the varicella vaccination for school attendance in the 2005-06 school year was issued in April 2004 to give ample time for families, physicians and schools to implement the vaccination requirement.
A state requirement for varicella vaccination has been in place since 2001 for children who attend child care facilities and are 16-69 months old.
Complications from chickenpox include severe skin infection, scars, pneumonia and brain damage. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that before the vaccine was widely used in the United States, about 12,000 people a year were hospitalized for chickenpox and about 100 people died.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends that all children receive the vaccine, as well as other susceptible persons over 13 years of age. Susceptible persons are those who have never had the disease or the vaccine.
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