Wagoner
Wagoner Declares Emergency Ordinance
In the picture from left to right is Wagoner Police Chief Bob Haley, Oklahoma State Senator Kim David, Wagoner Mayor James Jennings and myself David Starkey
Wagoner Police Chief Bob Haley declared an emergency against methamphetamine on Monday June 6, 2011 and the Mayor and complete Wagoner City Council agreed and passed a city ordinance that requires a prescription for all ( dry tablet ) pseudoephedrine. All gel caps and liquid pseudoephedrine are exempt from this ordinance because meth is made from the dry tablet form and not the gel caps and liquids because of one molecule change.
This Wagoner Ordinance started with a phone call to Holdenville Police Chief Keith Wardlow the day after Holdenville passed Oklahoma’s first pseudoephedrine ordinance. When the Wagoner Chief asked how he could get this passed in his city he handed me the phone because I was in Holdenville answering some questions about the ordinance. I told Wagoner Police Chief Bob Haley that I would send him a complete city council packet out to him when I made it home to Claremore. The packet has a pre-written ordinance specific to their city with meth information and two dvd’s. The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics Lawyers went over the final language of the ordinance to make sure it can be duplicated in any city.
Wagoner Will Require a Prescription To Purchase Pseudoephedrine
Over the weekend I went to the Wagoner City Carnival where the Wagoner Police Department had the video of Oklahoma’s meth problem I had made playing over and over showing the affects of meth to everyone that passed by. I was then introduced to Oklahoma State Representative Wade Rousselot which gave me his full support for this ordinance and really wanted this passed at the state level. Representative Rousselot then took me over and introduced me to Senator Kim David which also agreed with the ordinance and both showed a real concern in stopping the meth epidemic we have here in Oklahoma. Both said they would like to be at the council meeting to show support for it’s passage and Representative Rousselot called and had a last minute fire to put out but let it known to the council that he supported the ordinance.
The city council meeting began and I was listening to different agenda items and then it was our turn to speak and first up was Wagoner Police Chief Bob Haley. He spoke of the problems and dangers of meth and how it was fixable and declared this an emergency because of the out of control meth outbreak. I was then asked to speak and went over how we know this works because of Oregon and how there meth labs dropped 96% in one year, how their crime hit a 50 year low.
Mississippi just passed this and in the first six months their meth labs dropped 65% and still dropping. It is about saving children, police and our firemen from these meth fires. Just by breathing the fumes with no fire has just sent a Tulsa Police Officer to the hospital. It is not about making all pseudoephedrine prescription, it is just about switching to a gel cap or liquid with no prescription. Then the Mayor asked Oklahoma Senator Kim David if she would like to say anything and she went in front of the council and said she supported this ordinance and that we have to start at the city by city level to gain support at the state level. She went through some of the frustrating hurdles she had experienced at the state level and I have to say it is pretty powerful to have a Oklahoma State Senator speaking for passage of this ordinance.
If we could get the politics out of the way and stop some of our high ranking state capital members from taking the drug lobby money then we would not have to be going to city by city. I personally do not know how someone could vote against this while children and our police officers and fire fighters are dying from this stuff. You think it cannot happen to you but apartments, houses , hotels keep burning and mobile meth labs to. What if your on vacation with your family and you stay at a hotel and you want to think you are safe but the guy staying next to you has to have his meth fix. He goes down with some of his buddies along with some fake ID’s and stops at several places for several boxes of pseudoephedrine and take it back to the motel.
If just one little thing that goes wrong it’s over because these meth cooks are not trained chemist and they use a liter pop bottle with duck tape to hopefully hold the thing from exploding. So you have a bunch of tweekers playing chemist with something that can blow the wall between you out so fast you will never know what hit you, The chemical fire hits so fast that it melts skin right off of you. For some of you that are older there was a picture of a young child in Vietnam that was hit with napalm bomb and her skin had melted off. This is the type of damage we are talking about and I personally have no mercy for a meth cook but the innocent people around him is what this is all about. I personally think it should be mandatory for every person that voted against this at any level to go to the burn unit when the next 10 month old gets a plastic play pen melted on top of them from mom and dads meth fire. If you think it can’t happen then you should go watch the first news report on my web site GelCapsStopMeth.com and you will see what got me started.
With all of that said it is 100% fixable and it takes people both high and low in our government to say enough is enough and take action. Missouri has already passed 39 cities and Kansas has started passing pseudoephedrine restrictions. Where do you think they are already coming to get their pseudoephedrine, yep Oklahoma. If people will just be open to a little change and just take the same pseudoephedrine in a gel cap or a liquid instead of that dry tablet then we have just solved our meth lab problem and with NO prescription. If you agree and are as fed up as I am with a meth fire on the news every night then contact your police chief. I have city council packets I will send out for free and all they need to do is E mail or call and it’s that easy.
I will leave you with this saying that is so fitting:
It begins now. Change is messy. Things will never be just right – there is no perfect time. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” ~ Teddy Roosevelt
