Hawkins Announces Welch’s Resolution Withdrawal

  After various citizens had written articles to the newspaper, and various other politicians had expressed their concern and disdain for the resolution requiring cold and flu medicines to obtain a prescription prior to purchase, Vicki Aubrey Welch has pulled her resolution.

  An email alert from Doug Hawkins stated that “Citizens, doctors, and experts in the field spoke against this resolution and questioned its real effectiveness.  A vast number of constituents made hundreds of phone calls to council offices and voiced their opposition to the Welch resolution.”

  Despite the calls and voices of opposition various council members who represent districts with a lower income rate than others supported the resolution. One supporter, Bob Henderson, of District 14 which neighbors Welch’s was stated to be a possible co-sponsor for the resolution should it continue.

  According to Hawkins’ email alert, Welch has stated an interest in bringing the resolution up again in the future. According to the District 13 site at louisvilleky.gov, Welch has seemingly blamed a lack of education on the failure of support for her resolution.

  A press release from the office of Tony Hyatt states in full:

While she still believes it is an important way to fight the rise of Meth labs in Louisville Metro Councilwoman Vicki Aubrey Welch (D-13) has withdrawn her sponsorship of a resolution that would ask lawmakers in Frankfort to make pseudoephedrine a prescription drug.

Her reason; action by lawmakers in Frankfort is not moving forward.

“After learning HB497, the bill to move Pseudoephedrine to a Schedule III drug, has reached a dead end lacking the support to move it any further during this session, I regret to inform you I decided to withdraw the sponsorship of my Resolution,” Welch told the Metro Council on Thursday.

Welch first filed the resolution after a second Meth lab explosion in January in her district which took the life of a young woman and left two children motherless. From then on, she has worked with Louisville Metro Police and additional Public Safety officials and neighborhood groups to move the resolution forward.

“Now let me be clear, I have not nor will I stand idly by and watch this happen to my community I am going to continue to fight the good fight and encourage all of you to join me. However, part of being a effective leader is knowing when to stop and re-evaluate,” said Welch.

The Councilwoman Cited the dramatic increase in Meth labs in Kentucky, a 63% increase in 2009, as one of many reasons why she will keep fighting for the law. She also cited the need for better public awareness of what the law would do and how it would impact the average person who needs cold medications.

“Unfortunately, until we can do a better job educating people and providing accurate, factual information to assist them in making informed decisions as opposed to allowing multi-billion dollar special interest groups to influence their opinions we will continue to see an increase not only in the number of Meth Labs but in the number of children displaced and ultimately the number of deaths,” said Welch.