The message from meeting with Polk County judges last fall was emphatic: the Legislature must strengthen laws which curtail the sale of pseudoephedrine products for criminal purposes. Pseudoephedrine is the active ingredient found in common cold and allergy medications and the single ingredient which cannot be substituted when manufacturing methamphetamine.
Why were the judges so passionate? Because on a daily basis they see the devastating effects meth has on addicts and their families. A very large percentage of the criminal cases tried in Polk County have a tie to meth addiction.
It should be noted the goal of this legislation is to make it more difficult to obtain pseudoephedrine products, thus reducing the amount of meth being “cooked” in Iowa. However, since approximately 80 percent of the meth used in Iowa comes from out of state, everyone needs to understand this will have limited effect on reducing the availability of meth in our state.
The difficulty in crafting this legislation is to identify the fine line which allows accessibility for those using the medication for legal purposes, while at the same time restricting accessibility to those whose intent is criminal. How much inconvenience should, or will, law-abiding citizens put up with to help fight the meth problem?
Last week the Senate unanimously passed their version of the bill. It makes all pseudoephedrine a Schedule V controlled substance, the lowest form of controlled substance, and includes many medications sold without a prescription. Schedule V controlled substances must be dispensed by a licensed pharmacist and requires the purchaser to show identification and sign a log book.
The Senate bill allows an exception for smaller quantity packages of pseudoephedrine to be purchased outside a pharmacy setting. These smaller packages must be stored in a locked case or behind a counter and the purchaser must still show a government issued photo identification and sign a log book with his or her name and address. The log book can be accessed by a certified peace officer, a procedure typically used in a meth investigation. Creating the exception for retail sales of the smaller quantities is important to accommodate law-abiding rural residents who live in communities that have no pharmacy.
The main difference between the House and the Senate versions of the bill is the limit on the amount of pseudoephedrine which may be sold by a retail establishment to one person in a twenty-four hour period and on a monthly basis. It is difficult to determine where the limit should be established in order to allow law-abiding citizens to purchase enough for their needs without exceeding the limit or being severely inconvenienced. This is particularly problematic for those with allergies and other chronic health problems.
To that point, former meth “cookers” who testified before the subcommittee stated the biggest deterrent to people buying pseudoephedrine for making meth is the requirement to show identification and sign the log book. If this is true, perhaps limits are not important at all to the effectiveness of the law.
Many questions remain. What about the ability to purchase pseudoephedrine over the Internet? Wouldn’t those buying pseudoephedrine for meth just use fake identification? Isn’t the development of cold and allergy drugs without pseudoephedrine just around the corner? These are all valid questions and concerns. It is clear the only real objective of the proposed legislation is to throw a few more road blocks into the path of those buying pseudoephedrine to manufacture meth and it does not provide a silver bullet for the problem of meth availability.
E-mail: carmine.boal@legis.state.ia.us
Home Address: 3301 SW Timber Green Road, Ankeny
Home Phone: 964-3335 · Capitol Phone: 281-3238
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