People who suffer from airborne allergies could be among the first Americans affected by the USA Patriot Act that is to receive final congressional passage this week.
The bill, sold as an emergency tool against terror, takes aim at the production of methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug that cannot be manufactured without a key ingredient of everyday cold and allergy medicines. The bill would impose new limits next month for how much relief a person can buy over the counter.
And beginning Sept. 30, it'll take a flash of ID to buy that medication.
The legislation would blanket the nation with one policy that would put medicines containing pseudoephedrine behind the counter and out of the reach of meth cooks.
"If we leave it up to local jurisdiction, we're simply going to move the problem from one jurisdiction to another without addressing the root cause," Jerry Dyer, a California police chief said.
Rather than wait for localities to stitch together a patchwork of anti-meth policies, the provision of the Patriot Act would leave meth producers nowhere to run but out of the country. It takes aim at the meth trade's weakest point: the supply of pseudoephedrine.
Beginning 30 days after US President George W. Bush signs the law, expected sometime this week, purchase limits go into effect. One person would be limited to buying 300, 30mg pills in a month or 120 such pills in a day. The measure would make an exception for "single-use" sales of individually packaged pseudoephedrine products.
Similar state and local restrictions have caused seizures of meth labs to plunge by double-digit percentages in such states as Arkansas, Oregon and Missouri.
At the same time, drug agents began finding more meth from Mexican cartels on the street.
Still, closing down domestic meth labs is of unique urgency to public health and safety, law enforcement officials said.
The drug is made in clandestine labs with battery acid, drain cleaner or other chemicals that help turn the cold and allergy medicine into powder.
One quart of ether, another ingredient, holds the explosive power of several sticks of dynamite, said Sergeant Jason Grellner of the Franklin County, Missouri, Narcotics Enforcement Unit.
Oklahoma provides evidence that driving out meth labs doesn't mean getting rid of meth. Oklahoma's meth lab seizures have fallen 90 percent since April 2004, when it became the first state to ban over-the-counter sales of everyday cold and allergy medications.
At the same time, seizures of smokeable Mexican meth known as "crystal ice" rose nearly fivefold, from 384 cases in the 15 months before the law to 1,875 since.
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