Pubdate: Thu, 10 Feb 2005 Source: Courier-Journal, The (KY) Copyright: 2005 The Courier-Journal Contact: http://www.courier-journal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/97 Note: Only publishes local LTEs Author: Lesley Stedman Weidenbener Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) COLD MEDICINE BILL CLEARS HOUSE PANEL INDIANAPOLIS -- A bill that would force Hoosiers to buy most cold and allergy medicines at pharmacy counters instead of off the shelf passed a House committee yesterday. House Bill 1223 aims to keep pseudoephedrine -- a decongestant in Sudafed and other over-the-counter medications -- out of the hands of those who use it to make methamphetamine. The bill also requires customers to sign a log to purchase the pills, although it does not restrict how much they may buy. The Courts and Criminal Code Committee approved the bill unanimously, and it now moves to the full House for consideration. "Meth is not a local problem. It's everywhere," said Rep. Ralph Foley, R-Martinsville. "It's disgusting. It's a destroyer. It's a horrible thing." The bill also lets judges make drug treatment a condition of a defendant's release from jail after a meth arrest, requires law enforcement to quarantine the location of a meth lab while it is cleaned up and establishes a method by which local officials report to the state the labs they've raided. The Indiana Retail Council, which represents grocery, drug, discount and convenience stores, opposes the bill. The group's president, Grant Monahan, said yesterday that it's too strict. "It will take every convenience store in the state of Indiana out of the cold medicine business," Monahan said. "Eighty percent of grocery stores don't have pharmacies." Rep. Greg Porter, D-Indianapolis, voted for the bill yesterday but said he'd like lawmakers to consider less restrictive language. He said technology -- particularly the scanners and computers that stores use at checkouts -- can easily track who buys cold medicine and how much. It could be used to effectively control purchases, he said. The Senate already has passed a more lenient bill, in part to meet the concerns of retailers. Senate Bill 444, which now moves to the House for consideration, would restrict cold medicine sales to no more than two packages of 48 tablets each or one bottle of 100 pills. It also requires that stores provide some security measures regarding the medicines but does not require that they be kept behind a pharmacy counter. Both bills exempt liquid or gel forms of the cold medicines because it is harder for meth dealers to extract the pseudoephedrine. Yesterday Rep. Trent Van Haaften, D-Mount Vernon, said he hopes that whatever compromise lawmakers find "is meaningful and puts Indiana at the forefront of this fight." Van Haaften served on the Indiana Methamphetamine Abuse Task Force, which recommended that only pharmacists be allowed to sell the medicines and that they be kept behind a counter. That provision is based on the experiences of other states, including Oklahoma, which are also fighting serious problems with meth. In a series of stories in December, The Courier-Journal found that meth production and addiction is spreading quickly across Kentucky and Indiana, filling the states' jails, destroying families and increasing costs for local law enforcement. Indiana officials have estimated that meth costs the state at least $100 million a year, including the expense of dismantling labs, handling children removed from addicted parents and incarcerating addicts and meth makers. Last year police discovered at least 1,500 meth labs in Indiana. But Van Haaften said that number likely underreports the problem because it includes only those labs that the Indiana State Police either raided or cleaned up. HB 1223 requires that all law enforcement agencies report meth labs and notify local health and fire departments immediately after they have raided a lab because the chemicals used in meth production are toxic. It also requires police to notify the Division of Family and Children when children are found at the labs. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom