Pubdate: Mon, 21 Nov 2005
Source: Evansville Courier & Press (IN)
Copyright: 2005 The Evansville Courier Company
Contact:  http://www.courierpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/138
Author: Maureen Hayden, Courier & Press staff writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

LAWMAKERS TRY TO LIMIT ACCESS TO INGREDIENTS

Across the country and in the halls of Congress, lawmakers are moving 
to combat the rise in the use of methamphetamine by limiting access 
to a legal ingredient used to make the illegal synthetic stimulant. 
Indiana's Meth Protection Act is being held up as a model for 
controlling access to pseudoephedrine, a cold medicine that can be 
used to make methamphetamine. Under a law that took effect in July, 
Indiana retailers must keep such cold medicines in a locked case or 
behind a counter, and buyers must show identification, sign a logbook 
and limit their purchases to 3 grams a week. Last week, Illinois Gov. 
Rod Blagojevich signed a similar law that goes into effect Jan. 15.

An Illinois law enacted earlier this year limited the sale of 
medicines where pseudoephedrine was the sole  active ingredient to 
two boxes at a time. But it didn't have the identification or 
registration requirements. Meanwhile, Wisconsin lawmakers passed a 
bill this summer that made pseudoephedrine a Class V drug available 
only in pharmacies. Purchasers also have to sign a registry and show 
identification to buy up to 9 grams of pills per month. (Indiana's 
law limits buyers to 3 grams a week.) Kentucky law enforcement 
officials, meanwhile, are claiming some success from their law that 
restricts the sale of cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine and 
requires registration of buyers.

Kentucky State Police say the number of meth labs seized in the state 
has dropped from 41 in September 2004 to 12 in September 2005. In 
early November, Kentucky law enforcement officials announced they had 
opened 160 criminal investigations as a result of the portion of the 
law that requires buyers to provide identification and register their 
purchases by signing a logbook. As of August, 38 states had laws in 
some form restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine, according to the 
National Conference of State Legislators.

Meanwhile, a bill to regulate the sale of pseudoephedrine nationally 
is stalled in Congress. The federal legislation mirrors in part the 
Indiana law, requiring pseudoephedrine-containing products to be sold 
from behind the counter, and requires identification and registration 
of buyers. But it also imposes a daily purchase limit and a limit of 
9 grams (about 300 pills) in a 30-day period.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman