INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana police officers who have been pushing lawmakers to be more aggressive in combatting the manufacture of the illegal drug methamphetamine have more allies in the fight.
Some business leaders in communities hard-hit by the drug have joined the cause, lobbying legislators to pass a law to make it harder to buy the key ingredients that go into making meth.
Among them is Rod Henry, president of the Vigo County Chamber of Commerce in Terre Haute, who joined local police at the Statehouse this week to push for the legislation, sponsored by a bipartisan group of legislators including state Sen. Randy Head, a Republican from Logansport; state Sen. Tim Skinner, a Democrat from Terre Haute; and state Rep. Wes Culver, a Republican from Goshen.
“This goes back to our mission to preserve, promote and protect business from obstacles to growth and development,” said Henry. “We have an obstacle, and that’s meth.”
Vigo County was long listed in the top counties for the number of meth labs in the state. That undesirable status gave the county a bad rap with potential employers, Henry said, and existing employers saw the impact of it in the workplace, with increased absenteeism and other issues.
“This is an economic development issue,” Henry said. “It’s certainly a workforce development issue.”
But Vigo County’s numbers started going down after a series of efforts, including a voluntary effort on the part of locally owned pharmacies in Vigo County that required customers to have a doctor’s prescription to obtain cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine — a nasal decongestant that is also a key ingredient in meth.
Up until 1976, pseudophedrine was a prescription-only drug in the U.S. Henry and others want Indiana to return the drug to that status, joining Oregon and Mississippi in doing so. Both states, according to state police officials, have seen big drops in their meth labs.
Among those who support the bill is Elkhart County Sheriff Brad Rogers; his county now ranks second in the state for meth labs, according to the Indiana State Police.
Rogers initially opposed the bill that makes pseudoephedrine and a sister drug, ephedrine, prescription-only drugs. Instead he supported a bill, also under consideration in the Statehouse, that would expand a state monitoring system that tracks purchases of pseudophedrine and ephedrine-based products, the amount of which is limited by state law.
“But then I saw the evidence,” Rogers said. “You can’t argue with the evidence.”
The evidence he and other supporters cite: Mississippi passed its law six months ago and has seen a 65 percent drop in meth labs.
Oregon’s law has been in effect since 2006; the state has seen a 96 percent reduction in meth lab incidents, according to the Oregon Narcotics Enforcement Association.
Meanwhile, Kentucky, which has an expanded electronic tracking system like one that’s been proposed in Indiana, had a record number of meth lab busts last year.
Culver is the author of a bill in the House that would require a doctor’s prescription. He said the crisis he saw in his county compelled him to depart from his “less government” philosophy.
“Those of you who know me, know that I’m not in favor of adding more government,’’ Culver told members of the House Public Health Committee. His argument: By making pseudoephendrine a prescription-only drug — a private matter between a doctor and patient — it lessens the involvement of law enforcement.
Similar bills has been introduced in past legislative sessions but failed.
At a hearing in the House on the bill, Dr. Richard Freeman, the head of the Indiana Academy of Family Physicians, testified against the bill, saying it would be “too costly and burdensome” for families on limited budgets to require them to get a doctor’s prescription. “I’m not sure this is the answer,” Freeman said.