Pubdate: Fri, 28 Mar 2003
Source: Palladium-Item (IN)
Copyright: 2003 Palladium-Item
Contact: http://www.pal-item.com/customerservice/contactus.html
Website: http://www.pal-item.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2624
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

BILL EXTENDS SUSPICION TO LEGAL ACTIONS

If a person has 18 boxes of the decongestant Sudafed, a bill under 
consideration by the Indiana General Assembly would give police the 
authority to arrest him. The proposal, House Bill 1626, assumes that most 
people wouldn't have that much of the drug unless they were making 
methamphetamine, an addictive stimulant that is spreading across the Midwest.

Although that assumption may be logical, some other provisions in the bill 
would extend police authority too far into surveillance of personal lives.

One Sudafed Maximum Strength Sinus and Allergy pill contains about 60 
milligrams of pseudoephedrine. That would require about 400 pills - or 18 
boxes - to make 24 grams, which would be the quantity that could trigger an 
arrest.

It's hard to conceive that most people would need that much Sudafed at one 
time. The bill would exempt pharmacists, medical wholesalers or retailers 
and researchers from the standard.

But it's not so hard to believe that people could have quantities of 
hydrogen peroxide, paint thinner, iodine or lithium batteries or other 
common substances also listed in the bill. They are called methamphetamine 
precursors. Possession of any one of those substances would become illegal 
if police believed a person was planning to make meth.

The problem is that each of those substances is legal to buy and possess. 
They're not illegal until cooked together with other ingredients to make 
methamphetamine, an extremely dangerous process in itself. Police should 
not have authority to arrest or search a person just because he possesses a 
few gallons of paint thinner or several lithium batteries. It'd be like 
arresting a person for possessing a can of spray paint on the assumption 
that he plans to inhale fumes to get high.

The proposal also would make it a crime for a store clerk or anyone else to 
sell any of the ingredients if they had advance knowledge that the 
substance was to be used for making methamphetamine.

It also calls for adding as much as five years in prison to the sentence of 
anyone convicted of making methamphetamines if a child was present. That's 
good. Besides being illegal, the process of cooking methamphetamines can 
produce harmful fumes, fires and explosions.

Current law makes it a crime to possess any two of the ingredients for 
making meth. If the law needs to be rewritten, quantifying what is an 
illegal amount of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine is a 
good idea. But making it illegal to possess just one of the other 
ingredients is not a good idea. It gives police more reasons to stop, 
search and arrest people who have done nothing wrong. Additionally, it 
could put store clerks in the position of feeling they need to report 
anyone who purchases strange amounts of the legal substances, so that they 
won't be accused of being co-conspirators.

The General Assembly should amend this bill. Keep the new definition of an 
illegal quantity of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine, and 
the protection for children, but retain the current law about other 
methamphetamine precursors that requires the presence of two or more of 
them before police can arrest a person.
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