City moves against meth labs with new ordinances

Making methamphetamine in Greeley just got tougher.

Greeley City Council passed two ordinances Tuesday it hopes will discourage meth production in the city.

The first ordinance requires Greeley property owners to decontaminate homes and apartment buildings that are identified as meth labs.

The second ordinance will require merchants to keep over-the-counter medicines containing pseudophedrine, used to make meth, behind pharmacy counters or in secured store locations.

The council passed both ordinances unanimously.

Under the city's new ordinance, owners will have 21 days to perform a preliminary assessment and 120 days to either clean up up the site to standards or demolish the building.

Kim Barbour, president of the Greeley Area Realtors Association, said the group chose to pledge its support for the ordinance after the council extended the assessment deadline from 14 to 21 days and reassured them that owners will be able to go through an appeals process if they're unable to perform the cleanup or demolition in 120 days.

"We talked quite a bit, and we knew this is going to have to be done, so we said, let's make it work for everybody," Barbour said.

Barbour said they will encourage property owners to exercise their right to screen tenants to avoid any problems with meth producers.

The second ordinance, which requires retailers to keep products containing pseudophedrine behind counters, is intended to level the playing field in Greeley. Some retailers already keep the products, such as Sudafed, behind the counters. The city clerk's office said that nine stores, including two King Soopers, two Wal-Marts, Longs Drug Store, Rite Aid and Target, have pseudophedrine products behind counters.

Fourteen stores no longer carry the products, and two others are considering discontinuing sale of the products.

Stores that have no particular limits on location of the product have until Aug. 15 to comply.

Mini-Mart No. 850, 1001 39th Ave., still has the products on the shelves. Manager Michael Debalbo said he'll gladly adhere to the new city law. He said the store carries small amounts of five different medicines that contain pseudophedrine.

"It shouldn't affect us at all to have it behind the counter," Debalbo said. "I'm not opposed to that at all. Anything we can do to help curb the drug problem we'll stand behind."