By Ann Ali, Political Reporter

Charleston - Bridget Lambert readily admits she's not an expert on the Affordable Health Care Act.

But when it comes to the pieces that affect the members of the West Virginia Retailers Association, the organization she's president of, she keeps those details top-of-mind.

"Retail employers need to be formulating their business structure to comply with these extensive regulations and need clarity for their employer-sponsored plans," Lambert said. "At this moment our members do not know whether their employer-provided plans are deemed affordable and will pass the minimal value requirements in the statute."

By Lori Kersey
Charleston Gazette

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Officials hope to have a statewide pseudoephedrine-tracking system in place by October 19, a little more than two months before the required implementation date of Jan. 1.

Officials with Appriss Inc., a Louisville, Ky.-based company implementing the National Precursor Log Exchange system throughout the state, met Wednesday with members of West Virginia's law enforcement, medical and pharmaceutical communities.

The Herald-Dispatch

West Virginia's new state law aimed at preventing people from using cold remedies illegally to make methamphetamine is likely to face its toughest test in the county where the law was created.

A multi-state computer system that monitors the sale of cold remedies containing pseudoephedrine, which is used to make meth, shows that four pharmacies in Kanawha County top the state in the sale of those cold remedies, according to a report by The Associated Press. And apparently not by just a little bit. The pharmacies sell six to seven times as much pseudoephedrine products as pharmacies of similar size elsewhere in the state.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's wide-ranging substance abuse bill will go to the House of Delegates without a hotly debated provision designed to crack down on methamphetamine labs in West Virginia.

On Wednesday, state senators voted 34-0 to approve Tomblin's anti-drug bill (SB 437). The legislation did not include a requirement that pseudoephedrine, a cold and allergy medication that's also a key meth-making ingredient, become prescription-only.