Meth laws create long lines

EVANSVILLE -- A proposal to help authorities crack down on the illegal methamphetamine trade by restricting access to over-the-counter medications would mean longer waits for cold medicines at Indiana's pharmacies.\nPeople suffering from the common cold can currently buy medicines containing pseudoephedrine, an essential ingredient of meth, by grabbing a package off a pharmacy's shelf and heading to the checkout line.\nBut a state task force has proposed tight restrictions that would require customers to go to the pharmacist's window, sign their names into a log book and present valid picture IDs before getting the sniffle-relieving drug.\nThe number of packages each customer could buy in a month also might be restricted.\nState Rep. Trent Van Haaften said such inconveniences are necessary to curb meth manufacturing and its resulting social and financial costs.\n"Without pseudoephedrine, you're not going to end up with the final product of meth," Van Haaften told the Evansville Courier & Press. "If you restrict that, the end product is going to be reduced."\nVan Haaften, D-Mount Vernon, served on the 25-member Methamphetamine Abuse Task Force, which issued a report two weeks ago recommending that the Indiana General Assembly change several state laws and restrict retail access to pseudoephedrine.\nMeth is a highly addictive illegal stimulant brewed in crude home labs using pseudoephedrine, as well as anhydrous ammonia stolen from farms. Police say meth-cookers might visit one retail store after another to obtain as many pseudoephedrine tablets as they can.\nMany drugstores already take voluntary steps to deter meth cookers, such as stocking cold pills behind the counter instead of on the shelf.\nBut some retailers told the task force they are concerned about passing laws that regulate their shelf space or place more burdens on pharmacists, Van Haaften said.\n"My concern is we're deterring people from getting a medication that if used properly, there's no problem. It's just a certain segment of our society that tends to abuse it," said Pharmacist Brian Perry of Paul's Pharmacy of Evansville.\nAt the advice of Indiana State Police, Paul's Pharmacy stopped stocking pseudoephedrine products on the shelf.\nPerry wonders how the proposed law would apply in a large 24-hour retail outlet where the pharmacy might be closed after 9 p.m., and the decision might fall to a minimum-wage clerk, not a pharmacist.\nHe also noted the risk staff could face from addicts who demand pseudoephedrine and might resort to robbery.\nThe task force's recommendation are modeled on a new state law in Oklahoma, where decongestants such as Sudafed still are purchased without a prescription but must be displayed behind the pharmacy counter. Customers have to show ID and sign a log book.\nSince the law was passed in April, Oklahoma meth labs have dropped from an average 103 found per month to 65 per month, according to published reports.