EDITORIAL: What will it take to pass tough meth law?

If the nightmarish events last week in Bluffton aren’t enough to get lawmakers’ attention, we shudder to think of anything worse.

Methamphetamine lies at the center of the terrible death of a 3-year-old boy, according to investigators. Police say the boy’s mother, her boyfriend and another friend were using methamphetamine the night before the boy died Jan. 17.

The boyfriend allegedly told police the adults gave “dope” — apparently meth — to the boy and his sibling “to watch them have fun.” Charges against the couple allege that meth caused the 3-year-old boy’s death.

Yet, a few days later, two key state legislators said they doubt that bills by local legislators to control meth will even get committee hearings this year.

Sen. Sue Glick, R-LaGrange, has proposed a bill to require a prescription for cold medicines containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine — an essential ingredient for homemade meth.

Rep. Ben Smaltz, R-Auburn, has tried Glick’s idea before, only to be shot down. This year, he offered a bill allowing Hoosiers to buy up to 9.6 grams of pseudoephedrine per year without a prescription.

Current limits for meth purchases are 7.2 grams per month and 61.2 grams per year. Smaltz’s bill would allow a person to buy enough medicine to get through an occasional cold. A person who needs medicine year-round for allergies — including Smaltz himself — might need to see a doctor once a year.

But legislators who hold the fate of Glick’s and Smaltz’s bills say they don’t want to inconvenience law-abiding Hoosiers who buy over-the-counter cold and allergy medicines.

Sen. Mike Young, R-Indianapolis, chairs the committee that would have to hear Glick’s bill. Instead, Young will conduct a hearing on his own meth bill. It would outlaw the sale of pseudoephedrine products to anyone who has been convicted of a meth-related crime. Their names would be placed into a state data base.

The problem with Young’s bill is that most of the “smurfs” who buy cold medicine for meth “cooks” never get caught and convicted. A few years ago, people frequently fell into the trap of buying more pseudoephedrine than the law allowed. Since then, they’ve wised up, and arrests for overpurchasing have become rare in northeast Indiana.

Young’s bill would allow legislators to say they did something about meth without really having any impact. Indiana likely would continue to rank as the state with the most meth labs seized by police.

Glick told a reporter for The Statehouse File website that she is not insisting on fighting meth her way.

“If my bill is too strong, that’s fine,” Glick reportedly said. “Just as long as we pass one of them.”

But Glick also noted that her approach is based on the success stories of Tennessee and Missouri in fighting meth.

Statistics from state police say 440 Hoosier children were found inside meth lab houses in 2013, followed by another 362 last year.

So far in 2015, one of those innocent children is dead. What more will it take to change minds in our state capitol?