Chanute weighs ordinance against meth problem

The Neosho County Attorney told the Chanute City Commission that the city’s limits on sales of precursor ingredients has dramatically reduced the incidence of methamphetamine labs in the city, if not the drug’s use.

“We obviously still have a meth problem in town,” Commissioner Phillip Chaney said during Monday evening’s discussion.

The commission reviewed the city’s 2013 ordinance on cold medications that can be used to make methamphetamine. The issue weighs the drug abuse problem against the inconvenience to cold and allergy sufferers seeking legitimate medication.

County Attorney Linus Thuston quoted a Kansas Bureau of Investigation official on the issue.

“Does Chanute want to become Montgomery County?” he asked.

The city of Parsons started the restrictions, which were passed countywide in Crawford and Cherokee counties. Iola also passed restrictions after Chanute.

Thuston said since the ordinance was put into effect, one meth lab was prosecuted in five years, compared to 12 to 25 a year previously. Thuston said the drugs now come from south of the border. In addition to cartels, the drug is made by people who get precursor chemicals from large chain pharmacies in Coffeyville and Independence.

Mom-and-pop pharmacies can limit sales of drugs including pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, but Thuston said large chains are prohibited by company policy. He said a retail chain’s pharmacist opposed lifting Chanute’s ordinance.