Momentum builds to stop over-the-counter sales of cold medicine in meth battle

Electronic tracking of over-the-counter cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine – the crucial ingredient in methamphetamine – hasn’t stopped the spread of meth labs as predicted. Last year, despite an electronic tracking system, Indiana led the nation in meth lab seizures, according to federal and state data.

“This is one of the worst drugs ever created. It’s so addictive and so dangerous to make,” said Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett, whose community once topped the state for meth-lab busts.

The surge in illicit labs – up almost 30 percent since the tracking system went in place in 2012 – is prompting some lawmakers to support a prescription measure that is supported by Bennett and a growing number of mayors, public safety officials and health experts.

Among them is influential Senate Judiciary Chairman Brent Steele, R-Bedford. Steele reversed his longstanding objection to forced prescriptions after police busted 160 meth labs in his rural district last year. Many were found in places with children nearby.

Meth labs are particularly odious because "cooking" the drug involves poisonous, flammable and explosive chemicals. Meth-related crimes are also driving up jail populations; Bennett said half the inmates in his local jail face charges for crimes with some connection to meth.

Hoping to defuse pushback from drug companies, Steele is expected to propose just a temporary halt on over-the-counter sales of cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine.

His bill, to be taken up when the Legislature meets in January, would make pseudoephedrine a “scheduled” drug – requiring a prescription – for a two-year period. The state would then reevaluate to see if it made a dent in the number of meth labs.

“If it doesn’t slow the meth labs down, we can go back to where we are now,” Steele said in a letter to constituents explaining his proposal.

A similar bill may be filed in the House, where Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, has signaled support for a prescription requirement since the current measures aren’t working.

Supporters of prescriptions point to two states that already require them – Mississippi and Oregon – where law enforcement reports meth lab seizures have plunged.

They argue that prescriptions will stymie “smurfers” who buy pseudoephedrine products in small amounts, then re-sell it to meth-makers at an escalated price.

More than 2 million boxes of over-the-counter cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine were sold in Indiana last year.

Most of those were bought by legal users, argues Indiana Retail Council president Grant Monahan, whose members include drugstores.

Requiring a doctor’s order for popular cold medicines will increase the cost and convenience of health care for law-abiding citizens, he said.

That argument has stopped past efforts to require prescriptions. And Monahan thinks it will again, as legislators discover their constituents opposed to making the medicines harder to get.

Opponents of the prescription rule don’t question the damage done by the illegal use of pseudoephedrine. In four years of debate at the Statehouse, they’ve heard police, prosecutors, county health officials and even former meth addicts testify about the drug’s ravages.

In communities hit hardest, the number of child welfare cases have gone up while addicted patients crowd jails and courts. Local fire and police departments say they can’t keep up the costs associated with finding and cleaning up meth labs.

“I know how exhausting their fight has been,” Monahan said. “But our job is to sell our merchandise responsibly, and we think do that.”

Indiana stepped up efforts to slow the meth-making industry two years ago when it adopted an interstate tracking system that follows, in real time, sales of medicines with pseudoephedrine. The state already required pharmacies to keep the drugs behind sales counters, and set daily and monthly limits on how much a customer could buy.

The interstate tracking system has helped retailers and police identify people who exceeded their purchase limits, according to Monahan’s group. In 2013, the system stopped about 60,000 sales nationally.

That’s evidence that tracking makes a difference, said state Sen. Carlin Yoder, R-Middlebury, who opposes a prescription remedy for a problem that he said exists in his district, too.

He points to news reports of a rise in the import of Mexican-made methamphetamine in states that make it harder to buy legal meth ingredients.

“We’ve had this conversation over and over again,” Yoder said of meetings with those who support a prescription requirement. “I know they want to do something good. I know they’re looking for a solution, but this approach is just Pollyannish.”