Texas Senate votes to regulate cold remedy sales

Star-Telegram Austin Bureau ^ | May. 11, 2005 | John Moritz

[Dubya]

AUSTIN -- Cold remedies such as Sudafed would be placed in secure counters in Texas drug stores, and records would be kept on who purchases it under legislation designed to combat the manufacture of methamphetamine that won unanimous Senate approval on Wednesday.

"By requiring placement behind the pharmacy counter the ingredient that meth cooks must have, we will drastically reduce the ability of drug abusers to cook this highly volatile drug in our fields, neighborhoods, apartment complexes, hotels and even vehicles," said state Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, the legislation's author.

Estes backed off from his earlier proposal in Senate Bill 107 to limit the sale of all pseudoephedrine-based products to those who had doctors' prescriptions amid howls of protests from the pharmaceutical lobby and from those who suffer from the myriad allergies that hammer Texans. He has also all but abandoned his effort to increase prison time for those who traffic in methamphetamine.

The House is expected to take up similar legislation Thursday.

The rapid rise of methamphetamine production in Oklahoma has spread to Texas, Estes told the Senate, largely because that state enacted several get-tough measures in recent years. While Estes' legislation was being considered in committee earlier this spring, the widow of an Oklahoma state trooper who was killed by a methamphetamine maker in 2003 pleaded with lawmakers to do whatever necessary to stop meth trafficking.

"Sadly enough, there was already legislation sitting in Oklahoma City at the Capitol eight months before my husband was killed that had never been addressed," Linda Green, the widow of the Oklahoma trooper Nik Green, said at the time.

As a result of her husband's death, the Oklahoma Legislature passed a measure to curb the sale and manufacture of methamphetamine, which cut meth traffic in the state by more than half.

Under the bill that cleared the Senate, customers could only purchase two packages of products containing tablet-form pseudoephedrine products at a time. Additionally, they would have to show photo identification and sign a log book.

The products must also be either behind the counter or locked in a display case. Liquid and gel capsules would not be covered by the legislation because they cannot be used to produce meth.

Methamphetamine is a stimulant that can be injected, smoked or swallowed. Last year, the Drug Enforcement Administration reported that more than 7,000 meth labs were dismantled nationwide. Gottlob said the effects of methamphetamine on users include intense euphoria, bursts of energy and increased libido.

Meanwhile, Pfizer, the New York-based maker of Sudafed, is offering a new version of the cold and allergy medicine without the ingredient used to make methamphetamine.

Pseudoephedrine will be replaced with another substance in Sudafed PE, which will be available in the United States this week. Pfizer will continue to offer the old Sudafed.

In many states, pharmacists keep Sudafed and other cold medicines used to make meth behind a counter. Oklahoma requires that such medications be distributed by a pharmacist.

John Moritz, (512) 476-4294 jmoritz@star-telegram.com

[Dubya]

No Tax Lowered. More Laws. Why don't we just deal with the people who break the law?

[Txsleuth]

Great googly-moogily, now when I go to get medicine for my husband's allergies, I will feel like I am getting him a "fix"---sheesh, only two packages at a time!!

Ya know, I only buy one now, but now that they want to limit me to two, I don't like that one bit---I want three!!!

If the gel capsules and the liquid can't be used to make meth., and if they do as good of a job with what they are made for, allergies and such, then why don't they just sell those, and put them on the shelves so ADULTS like myself can buy what we need.

The Texas legislature is doing way too many WRONG things lately---I think we should talk the dems into going back to Albuqueque or Oklahoma!

[cpdiii]

That is a good bill. The step from sudaphed (psuedoepedrine) to meth ampethamine is pretty easy to do.

Now the bad news. Amphetamines can be made from other chemical stocks. However, the chemistry is more difficult and will require more sophisticated labs and more learned "cooks" to do it. We can slow the trade down but you will not stop it unless you are willing to change the penalties for dealing to death.

There are only two solutions to the drug problem.
1. Legalization is one, and give help to those that want to be clean and give drugs to those that do not want to stop and that set will quickly eliminate themselves with drugs, which is quite acceptable to me.
2. The other is to have draconian laws the will put to death those that deal in the product.

Either solution will work. What we are doing now in this country is the worst solution as it is no solution.

[PhiKapMom]

The bill works to cut down on meth labs or it has here in OK -- doesn't take long to get used having certain brands behind the pharmacy counter. Just take a card to the pharmacy and purchase your medicine for colds/sinus/allergies. It doesn't affect all brands only ones containing an ingredient used in the manufacture of meth.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

The Mexican Mafia will now have a monopoly since their labs are across the border and unaffected.

[Rob_DSM]

If it's so dangerous, it should just be required that you show your proof of age to buy it. I'm sure there's lots of perfectly legit products out there that can be used to make other stuff that is illegal, but there doesn't need to be a log kept on how often I buy sudafed. I'd hate to have the DEA knocking at my door just because my allergies are so bad. In fact, I think I'm going to go take a hit right now. Just another law to punish the majority because the minority can't behave.

[TKDietz]

"There are only two solutions to the drug problem.

1. Legalization is one, and give help to those that want to be clean and give drugs to those that do not want to stop and that set will quickly eliminate themselves with drugs, which is quite acceptable to me.

2. The other is to have draconian laws the will put to death those that deal in the product.

Either solution will work. What we are doing now in this country is the worst solution as it is no solution."

What about places like Iran and Singapore where they kill people involved with drugs but have higher rates of heroin addiction than we do? I don't believe in legalizing drugs like meth but I don't think the death penalty for anyone caught selling it would be the silver bullet many think it would be. As long as there are people who want it, they're going to get it somehow.

[cpdiii]

It worked in Singapore. They had one of the worst drug problems in the world and enacted draconian laws. They have stretched more than one neck and a few of those necks belonged to Aussies and Brits. They no longer have a drug problem.

In relationship to Iran, because of the theocracy and corruption and loss of hope you have a totally dysfunctional society. Many there do not care and heroin is their escape from reality. In the days of the Shah Iran had a drug problem but it was minor as compared to their drug problem today.

[freepatriot32]

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

[freepatriot32]

2. The other is to have draconian laws the will put to death those that deal in the product.

Its going on here in america to a certain extent and is failing miserably.A few dozen street dealers get killed every day in this country by thier rivals and as soon as the chalk outline is washed away there is a new drug dealer on the exact same spot selling drugs because the profit margin is so high becasue the drugs are illegal.The same thing happend during prohibition of alchohol the saint valentines day massacre didnt stop bootleggers from selling. it just stop those specific bootleggers from selling. They were quickly replaced however.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

So when the meth users use another ingredient instead of pseudoephedrine, the goobermint will regulate that as well.

I got an idea - let's just put all items in a grocery store behind the pharmacist counter.

[TKDietz]

Singapore no longer has a drug problem? Per capita percentage-wise, they have more registered heroin addicts as we have people who report using heroin. That just accounts for their registered addicts, the ones who the government knows about who are supposedly seeking treatment. That means there are probably a whole lot more there the government doesn't know about.

Here is something on that borrowed from one of Ken H's posts:

"Singapore serves as a gateway for drugs to SE Asia:

'However, due to its preeminent role in regional shipping and finance, international traffickers use Singapore for the transit of narcotics and the laundering of drug proceeds.'
-- US State Dept.

According the latest authoritative figures I could find, the Netherlands had about half the rate of heroin addiction rate as the US and Singapore:

The Netherlands has extensive demand reduction programs and low­threshold medical services for addicts, who are also offered drug rehabilitation programs. Authorities believe such programs reach about 70­80 percent of the country's 25,000 hard­drug users (in a total population of 15.1 million). [about 0.17% for 1996]
--http://www.state.gov/www/global/narcotics_law/1996_narc_report/index.html

There were an estimated 980,000 hardcore heroin addicts in the United States in 1999, 50 percent more than the estimated 630,000 hardcore addicts in 1992. [about 0.34%]
--www.usdoj/ndic/pubs07/794/heroin.htm

There are currently about 9,000 addicts undergoing rehabilitation in Singapore treatment centers, the same number as in 1995. [about 0.3% for 1996]
--http://www.state.gov/www/global/narcotics_law/1996_narc_report/index.html "

Note that the U.S. numbers are an estimate. The 980,000 is the highest of the estimates. From their National Survey on Drug Use & Health SAMHSA estimates that there are less than 400,000 in this country who have used heroin in the past 30 days. The 980,000 number comes from a combination of the SAMHSA numbers and other numbers reported from other sources. Whether you use the highest or the lowest estimate, it's clear that heroin use is higher in Singapore than it is here because we don't have anywhere near .3% of our population in treatment for heroin. And you know if there are that many registered addicts there have to be a whole lot more out there doing it who haven't been caught.

[TKDietz]

"So when the meth users use another ingredient instead of pseudoephedrine, the goobermint will regulate that as well."

What other ingredient is that? There is actually a way to make it without ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, but the chemicals used in that method, the P2P method, were subjected to tight controls many years back and now the P2P method is almost never used. There are plenty of "recipes" for making meth being used out there, but all of the rest of them require ephedrine or pseudoephedrine.

These laws will not put a stop to the big labs with illicit sources to huge quantities of pseudoephedrine. They will severely curtail the number of meth labs though. Most all of the labs out there are just little kitchen type operations with a few tweakers cooking up a few grams at a time. The problem is that the lions share of all of the money we are wasting trying to stamp out meth lab is being spent on these little rinky dink set ups, most of which would disappear if it suddenly became much more difficult to obtain enough pseudoephedrine to keep the things going.

Oklahoma has seen an 80% reduction in the number of labs since they put the pseudoephedrine behind pharmacy counters.