Indiana House bill to limit access to key ingredient for making meth dies in committee

The proposed law, backed by the Association of Indiana Counties and law enforcement agencies around the state, would give local governments the option of requiring prescriptions for cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine. The House Committee on Courts and Criminal Procedure listened to about three hours of testimony on the bill but did not send it to the full House for a vote.

“The idea is to make it harder to get,” said Daviess County Chief Deputy Gary Allison. “Oregon and Mississippi passed similar bills in the past and they saw a big drop in the number of meth labs.”

Indiana State Police report officers seized 1,808 of those labs in 2013, a number that has increased for seven consecutive years despite additional laws that have put those cold medicines behind the counter and limited the amount that people can purchase. The problem is meth makers have figured out ways around those laws.

“Meth makers have circumvented the limits by having other people buy the old medicine on their behalf, a practice known as smurfing,” said Sgt. Niki Crawford, commander of Indiana’s Meth Suppression division. “Not only do people run out and get milk before a storm, they’re running out and getting their pseudoephedrine before the storm.”

“Smurfing is a huge problem around here,” said Allison. “We’ve heard of people coming in carloads, buying up all the pseudoephedrine they can, then moving down the road. We’ve even had reports of people paying others as much as $50 to go make purchases.”

While law enforcement is pushing for the additional restrictions critics say it is not needed. They contend the change would raise health care costs and and intrude on sick people’s rights.

Indiana Retail Council president Grant Monahan said requiring prescriptions for drugs with pseudoephedrine was bound to increase the cost of health care, as people would have to take time off work and pay for doctor’s visits, plus pay for the medicine.

“This would take away the rights of law-abiding citizens,” said Kevin J. Kroushaar, a lobbyist for the Consumer Healthcare Products Association.

Opponents point out meth and meth labs are costing the state a lot of money. The Indiana Association of Cities and Towns say it costs more than $5 million last year to got after meth labs and clean up the toxic mess they leave behind.

“Indiana does receive some money from the DEA to help with the clean up,” said Allison, “but they run out of it almost every year.

That is not the only cost of meth. Jail populations have grown as meth arrests have increased. Last year state police say 1,507 people were arrested in connection with meth. “If you go through our jail and start checking you’ll find a lot of our prisoners have some kind of background involving meth.”

The DEA lists Indiana as third in the number of meth labs. In 2012 Missouri recorded 1,825 of the labs, Tennessee 1,525, and Indiana 1,429. While the agency says most meth abused in the United States is smuggled in from Mexico, police contend most of the meth in Indiana is made at home using what is called a one-pot or shake-and-bake-method. “If this were an Ebola virus epidemic no one would blink at doing a quarantine,” said Larry Landis, executive director of the Indiana Public Defender Council.

Police in southwestern Indiana have long complained the lawmakers in Indianapolis have been slow to recognize the depth of the meth problem. “We were dealing with meth labs in this part of the state years before they began to surface in other areas,” said Allison. “By the time they were writing headlines in Indianapolis about finding a meth lab the same thing had moved to the back page. I think it may be getting more attention now because the problem has spread to the entire state.”

The latest state police numbers show Vanderburgh County topping the list with 115 labs followed by Delaware, Noble, Allen and Elkhart Counties. Daviess County now ranks near the bottom with nine labs. Pike County recorded four and Martin 12.

“I still think it should be available by prescription only,” said Allison. “We’ll continue to take it back to the Legislature and keep trying until it passes.”