BEDFORD — Indiana has yet to find a solution to its methamphetamine problem, but a proposal by two state senators aims to make it more difficult to purchase pseudoephedrine for illegal purposes, while avoiding the previous controversial proposal of making it available by prescription only.
Referred to as the "pharmacist legitimization bill," the measure would require purchasers of pseudoephedrine, an ingredient used to make meth, to speak to a pharmacist before purchasing the OTC medication to treat cold and allergy symptoms. The pharmacist would ascertain from the person information sufficient to determine that the person actually needs it.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Randy Head, R-Logansport, and Sen. Jim Merritt, R-Indianapolis, takes direct aim at "smurfs," who are paid to purchase ingredients for the meth producers, or "cooks."
Josh Anderson, Pharm.D at Crowder's Pharmacy, 631 16th St., an independent pharmacy, said he favors the bill.
"They've shown in Rochester that it works," he said. "Talking to customers, that can cut into a pharmacist's time a little bit, but it's worth it to help stop the sale of pseudoephedrine to be made into meth."
Fulton County, where Rochester is located, adopted a policy under which all six pharmacies verify that the requesting customer had a legitimate medical use for the medication. The policy is based on a similar Arkansas state law. According to an article published in The Indianapolis Star, sales of pseudoephedrine dropped 50 percent in Fulton County once the policy was put into practice in June.
Anderson said he seldom encounters purchasers of pseudoephedrine — either at Crowder's Pharmacy or at Lincoln Plaza Pharmacy — since the stores adopted a policy about five years of selling the medication to Lawrence County residents only.
"When Tennessee and Kentucky put in the MethCheck law, we were having people drive up from those states to buy pseudoephedrine products," said Anderson. "Now, we don't sell pseudoephedrine unless you are a regular customer and we know you."
Because Indiana already requires purchasers of the medication to register when they buy pseudoephedrine, having a brief conversation with the pharmacist is not going to cause a significant delay, said Anderson, who is also the District 9 representative for the Indiana Pharmacists Alliance.
"A lot of people are on blood pressure medication or have heart issues, so it's good to talk to the pharmacist about that product anyway," he said.
Indiana has had more meth incidents than any other state for two straight years, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which compiles national statistics on meth. In 2014, 1,469 incidents were reported in the Hoosier State. Indiana, home to just 2 percent of the U.S. population, claimed 15 percent of U.S. meth arrests. Not only is meth a volatile drug, the cost to decontaminate a home where meth was produced ranges from $20,000 to $55,000.
State Rep. Steve Davisson, R-Salem, has been a pharmacist since 1981 and consulted with Head and Merritt on the bill. He believes the bill will cut down on meth labs and will not place a burden on doctors or consumers by making the drug available by prescription only.
"I think this bill would be the best route," said Davisson, who represents a part of Lawrence County. "It would satisfy the different groups of people without causing chaos. Arkansas did this in 2011, and meth labs decreased by 95 percent, so it has worked."
Despite using NPLEx, the National Precursor Log Exchange, which tracks purchases of the drug, Indiana has been unable to slow the illegal production of meth.
The bill would also make it harder for smurfs, who tend to make buys at big box stores.
"Not to be critical, but those pharmacists don't really deal with the customer," said Davisson. "A clerk will take your (driver's) license (information) and sell it to you. With this bill, the pharmacist has to have a conversation with the patient. No. 1, that will make people uneasy if they are buying it for illegal purposes and No. 2, it gives a pharmacist the ability to decide which product to give. There are a couple of products, like Nexafed, that can't be broken down and used to make meth, but you still get the effectiveness of it as a cold remedy."
Previous bills would have required a prescription to obtain pseudoephedrine. Those measures met with opposition from medical and consumer health groups, and rightly so, said Davisson.
"When you think about the practicality of it with doctors, they are so overloaded now, it doesn't made sense to make them give a prescription to patients," he said. "But we need to do something. I believe this could make a huge dent in the meth problem."