Senate advances bill to restrict cold medicines
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The Senate judiciary committee on Thursday unanimously approved a bill that would limit access to common cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, an ingredient that can be used to make the highly addictive drug methamphetamine.
The committee sent the “Combat Meth Bill” to the full Senate. A similar bill in the House of Representatives has been referred to a subcommittee for consideration.
In testimony to Congress earlier this week, Bush administration officials and law enforcement officers from around the country said methamphetamine addiction, once confined to western and mainly rural regions of the United States, has spread to the entire nation and now also is affecting urban and suburban areas.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales recently said methamphetamine had surpassed marijuana as the greatest danger to the nation’s children.
The legislation, sponsored by California Democrat Sen. Diane Feinstein would move cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, such as Sudafed, NyQuil, and Tylenol Cold, behind pharmacy counters and limit how much one person can buy to 7.5 grams a month.
It is modeled after an Oklahoma law, also copied by at least a dozen other states, that has resulted in a large drop in meth labs seized by authorities.
“Today is a good day in the fight against methamphetamines. We’re one step closer to enacting a national meth bill that would put thousands of meth labs out of business,” Feinstein said, adding that she hoped the Senate would pass the act in September.
Feinstein said the legislation would encourage the manufacture of cold medicines without pseudoephedrine.
“Meth,” as it is known, can be made using common household and agricultural chemicals and cold medicines following recipes easily available on the Internet. The drug is highly addictive, and its manufacture creates toxic waste products that damage the environment and are expensive to clean up.
Much of the meth sold in the United States is manufactured in “superlabs” in California and Mexico. However, a significant amount is made in small labs in peoples’ bathtubs, or in abandoned buildings or even in hotel rooms.
According to a survey of law enforcement organizations conducted by the National Association of Counties and released this month, 58 percent of county law enforcement agencies now see meth as their largest drug problem.
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