Barbour to sign prescription cold medicine bill
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By JASON PATTERSON
Managing Editor
Gov. Haley Barbour said he will sign a bill that will require a cold medicine used to make methamphetamine to be available by prescription only.
Yazoo County Sheriff Thomas Vaughan said he fully supports the bill. An increasing number of meth labs have appeared in Yazoo County in recent years, and Vaughan said he believes this new law will make a difference.
“It makes the key ingredient that much harder to get,” Vaughan said. “Hopefully our neighboring states will follow Mississippi’s lead.”
In a statement to The Herald Tuesday, Barbour indicated that he plans to sign the bill.
“I commend the Mississippi Legislature for its swift action to address the methamphetamine problem in this state,” Barbour said. “I look forward to signing House Bill 512, which will make it more difficult to obtain the ingredients for this drug that tears families apart and harms many of our communities. Meth labs threaten public safety, and I don’t think there is any doubt we will see a drop in the number of labs in our state.”