States to pass new anti-meth laws

What if every time a person got a cold and wanted to buy Sudafed, he or she had to obtain a prescription from a doctor?

This could be a possibility in the future.

A trend in Indiana and many other states is the use of over-the-counter medicines containing pseudoephedrine, such as Sudafed, to make methamphetamine.

Some states have proposed bills that would require prescriptions for these medicines to help prevent the production of meth.

In Kentucky, Senate Bill 45, introduced by Sen. Tom Jensen and co-sponsored by Sens. Jared K. Carpenter, Ray S. Jones and Brandon Smith, was introduced to the Senate in January and has been stalled.

Sgt. Curt Durnil of the Indiana State Police said they have been trying to prevent meth production for years.

“Meth is a large problem that we have. We’ve been fighting it for a decade and a half,” Durnil said. “It is definitely a problem that has not slowed down.”

The ISP has a unit devoted solely to fighting this problem.

“The suppression unit is totally dedicated to fighting meth suppression, collecting intelligence information and arresting those involved in the production of meth,” Durnil said.

Lt. Faron Lake of the Bloomington Police Department said portability of meth labs has increased production.

“It used to be you had to set up a lab the size of a room, but now you can actually cook meth in a two-liter bottle in the back of a car, which is where we find a lot of our labs — in hotel rooms, the back of cars, things like that,” Lake said.

Bloomington and Indiana may have a problem with meth production, but the same may not be true for Indiana University, Lt. Craig Munroe of the IU Police Department said.

“As far as Indiana University, we don’t have a problem,” he said.

Durnil said he thinks that if the bill passes in Kentucky, it would likely be proposed in Indiana.

“If a prescription was required, the doctor would have to write it, and they (meth producers) could try to manipulate the system, but the doctors do prescription fraud and that makes it more difficult to get it,” Lake said. “It would be a control measure to keep it away.”