Senate Bill No. 726

(By Senators Wooton, Caldwell, Hunter, Kessler,

Minard, Mitchell, Redd, Ross, Rowe, Snyder and Facemyer)

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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;


reported February 26, 2002.]

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A BILL to amend article five, chapter sixty-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section five hundred five, relating to creating the offense of selling ephedrine and related substances in amounts in excess of those deemed to be for legitimate use; and penalties.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article five, chapter sixty-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section five hundred five, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5. ENFORCEMENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS.
§60A-5-505. Sale of excessive amounts of ephedrine and related substances.

(a) Any retail distributor or employee thereof who knowingly and willfully sells, transfers or otherwise furnishes, in a single transaction involving nonprescription products:
(1) More than four packages of one or more products that the retail distributor or employee knows to contain ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine, their salts, isomers, or salts of isomers; or
(2) Any single package of any product that the retail distributor or employee knows to contain ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine, which contains more than one hundred pills, tablets, gelcaps, capsules or other individual units; or more than three grams of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine, their salts, isomers, or salts of isomers, or a combination of any of these substances, whichever is smaller.
(3) Any product containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine unless:
(A) The product is sold in package sizes of not more than three grams of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine base, and is packaged in blister packs, each blister containing not more than two dosage units; or
(B) Where the use of blister packs is technically infeasible, that is packaged in unit dose packets or pouches; or
(C) In the case of liquids, the drug is sold in package sizes of not more than three grams of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine base.
(b) Any retail distributor, or employee thereof, who violates subsection (a) of this section, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be fined not more than $250.00.
(c) In any prosecution pursuant to the provisions of this section, good faith and lack of knowledge shall constitute affirmative defenses.
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(Note: The purpose of this bill is to create the misdemeanor offense of selling excessive amounts of products containing ephedrine and related substances.

This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.)