Indiana panel passes two meth drug bills out to full House

Senate Bill 80, unofficially dubbed the “Nosy Pharmacist” bill, was amended by the committee, taking out all the language in Sen. Randy Head’s (R-Logansport) original bill and putting in the language from Rep. Ben Smaltz’s (R-Auburn) House Bill 1390.

That language had already been approved by the full House and both Smaltz and Head said HB 1390 was a “little stronger” than SB 80.

Smaltz’s bill is more specific on how pharmacists would interact with customers wanting to buy Sudafed.

Instead of consulting with every customer who comes into a pharmacy seeking pseudoephedrine, pharmacists can establish some customers as “patients of record.” It will be up to the Indiana Board of Pharmacy to define patient of record, but Smaltz said he thinks of it as a patient who has an established relationship with a pharmacy. New customers would be offered nonpseudoephedrine medication under the bill. If they demanded Sudafed, they would need a prescription.

The amended bill got out of committee on a 6-5 vote. Reps. Charlie Brown (Gary), Robin Shackleford (Indianapolis) and Greg Porter (Indianapolis), all Democrats, voted against the bill. They were joined by Republican Reps. Ed Clere (New Albany) and David Frizzell (Indianapolis)

It appears unlinkely HB 1390 will get a hearing in a Senate Committee. It has been assigned to the Courts & Criminal Code Committee but has not been scheduled for a hearing. With the amendment, the bill will live on in SB 80.

The committee also approved Senate Bill 161, the NPLEx update bill. NPLEx is the state’s system that monitors pseudoephedrine sales.

Frizzell, who has authored an identical bill in the House, amended SB161 to try and fix the one remaining concern he still had — the cost of the update.

The bill would add anyone convicted of a drug-related felony to the state’s NPLEx system. Under the bill, felons would not be allowed to buy Sudafed without a prescription. With the amendment, courts, not Indiana State Police, would send information on felons convicted of drug-related offenses to the NPLEx system. Those records would go back to 2012.

Both of the bills now go to the full House. They could be eligible for third reading as early as Thursday.