A bill restricting the sales of cold medications containing pseudoephedrine has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill had been stalled for several weeks over concerns about states losing their ability to regulate pseudoephedrine, an issue that was resolved with an amendment that allows states to make and enforce their own policies.
The Combat Meth Act of 2005, sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Jim Talent (R-Missouri), would put all medicines containing pseudoephedrine behind the pharmacy counter, and require people to show photo identification and sign a log book when they purchase cold medicines. They would be limited to buying approximately 250 pills per month, and a computer tracking network would ensure that they do not purchase more than the limit.
The legislation is intended to curb the proliferation of methamphetamine labs, where pseudoephedrine can be extracted from cold medicines to make methamphetamine.
This bill comes at a time of intense focus on methamphetamine by lawmakers at the state and local as well as federal levels, and equally intense coverage in the media. Earlier this week, professor and Alliance board member Dr. David Lewis joined more than 90 researchers and physicians in calling for more science-based media coverage of methamphetamine. In an open letter they condemned the term "meth babies," which is widely used but not based in science. The letter points to evidence from the so-called crack epidemic that such stigmatizing terms result in lowered expectations for achievement and failure to investigate other possible causes for physical and social problems.
