{"id":660,"date":"2013-12-14T17:29:55","date_gmt":"2013-12-14T22:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=660"},"modified":"2013-12-14T17:29:55","modified_gmt":"2013-12-14T22:29:55","slug":"larry-kump-meth-narcs-right-wingers-and-big-pharma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=660","title":{"rendered":"Larry Kump, Meth, Narcs, Right Wingers and Big Pharma"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>West Virginia Delegate Larry Kump (R)\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.journal-news.net\/page\/content.detail\/id\/598605\/Blair-s-daughter-to-run-for-House.html?nav=5006\">has a primary challenge from a 17-year old high school student.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Her name is Saira Blair. Saira is the daughter of State Senator Craig Blair (R).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e2HFIdgtj08\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s only December, but Kump must be feeling the heat from the high schooler.<\/p>\n<p>How can we tell?<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s fully five months before the May 14, 2014 West Virginia primary and Kump has already started robocalling.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s Blair robocall had six questions.<\/p>\n<p>Question number four caught our interest.<\/p>\n<p>It went like this:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere will be yet another push in the West Virginia legislature this year to make Sudafed cold medicine only available to you with a doctor\u2019s prescription. If this happens, you will have to take off work, pay for a doctor\u2019s appointment, and pay even more for Sudafed than you do now. How important is it for you to be able to continue purchasing this medicine without a doctor\u2019s prescription? Press one if you think you should not be forced to see a doctor to buy cold medicine. Press two if you think you should have to see a doctor first before you can buy Sudafed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We rang up Jason Grellner to get his response to Kump\u2019s robocall.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.corporatecrimereporter.com\/news\/200\/narcs-versus-big-pharma\/\">Grellner is the vice president of the National Narcotics Officers Association Coalition.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Turns out that law enforcement personnel, narcotics officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and first responders almost universally favor legislation putting pseudoephedrine products on prescription.<\/p>\n<p>Why?<\/p>\n<p>Because, according to Grellner, upwards of 80 percent of all pseudoephedrine sales in the United States are being used to make meth.<\/p>\n<p>And meth labs pose health risks to narcotics officers and other law enforcement officials &#8212; from fire, explosion, inhalation and meth waste.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of the chemicals these individuals use are to be used in well ventilated areas,\u201d Grellner said. \u201cWhen individuals start using these indoors is when you get your greatest risk to fire and inhalation. Law enforcement officers get hurt. Children get hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grellner himself is missing 27 percent of his lung capacity from a meth lab incident.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very hard to do an investigation at meth lab, walk into a house in a moon suit with a respirator on and hold a conversation with individuals about whether or not they are manufacturing methamphetamine,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Grellner says that the question Kump posed is very similar to questions being posed by the Consumer Healthcare Products Association &#8212; the trade group representing the makers of pseudoephedrine products &#8212; Big Pharma.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA more fair and balanced question would be &#8212; Would you mind getting a prescription for pseudoephedrine if it meant ending meth labs in West Virginia?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grellner says that Kump\u2019s assertion that if West Virginia passes prescription only legislation \u201cyou will pay even more for Sudafed than you do now\u201d is \u201can out and out lie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both Oregon and Mississippi have crippled their meth labs by passing similar legislation, he says.<\/p>\n<p>And in both states \u201cthere was no increase the price of pseudoephedrine,\u201d Grellner said.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the West Virginia prescription law would reportedly exempt tamper-resistant pseudoephedrine products &#8212; products like Nexafed and Zephrex-D &#8212; that can\u2019t be cooked into pseudoephedrine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBig Pharma is just out to try and protect it\u2019s sales of 75 million boxes of pseudoephedrine products a year,\u201d Grellner says. \u201cThat\u2019s $1 billion in gross sales.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI understand the right wing tea party ideology,\u201d Grellner said. \u201cThe problem is when you are trying to force ideology into reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you are going to be fiscally conservative, you have to ask yourself &#8212; why do West Virginia taxpayers need to continue to pay for meth lab clean ups and enforcement when we can prevent the harm from happening by passing this legislation?\u201d Grellner said.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of Kump\u2019s robocall, our delegate says &#8212; \u201cplease don\u2019t hesitate to call me here at home &#8212; 304.274.3104.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grellner says he called Kump and talked to him about pseudoephedrine and meth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe understood the nature of the drug, understood the hazards, and the dangers of fire and explosions,\u201d Grellner said. \u201cBut to him, it\u2019s all about liberty. And he said he wasn\u2019t going to change his mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve run into this ideology before,\u201d Grellner said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow about my freedom and liberty to go hiking and not find meth lab wastes on the trail?\u201d Grellner asks. \u201cHow about my liberty to lease or rent a property in West Virginia and not have to worry about whether there was a meth lab in the property?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for the legislation, Delegate Don Perdue (D), a chief sponsor of the pseudoephedrine on prescription bill, says he already has five Republicans signed on to the legislation and the bill has a good chance of passage in the upcoming session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>West Virginia Delegate Larry Kump (R)\u00a0has a primary challenge from a 17-year old high school student. Her name is Saira Blair. Saira is the daughter of State Senator Craig Blair (R). It\u2019s only December, but Kump must be feeling the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=660\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}