2nd District Congressman Brad Carson to introduce stringent meth law

Monday, May 17th 2004, 5:46 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Rep. Brad Carson, D-Okla., said Monday he will introduce a bill to make common cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine a controlled substance available only from pharmacists.

Pseudoephedrine is the key ingredient used in making illegal methamphetamine. Carson said the drug is ``a dangerous plague that threatens the health and safety of communities throughout the United States on a daily basis.''

The ``Ephedrine Alkaloids Regulation Act of 2004,'' which will be introduced Tuesday in the U.S. House, is similar to a bill enacted in Oklahoma this year banning store sales of the tablet form of decongestants, such as Sudafed and Claritin-D.

Like Oklahoma's law, the federal measure would require photo identification before the tablet form of the cold medicines could be bought from pharmacists.

Carson said no consistency exists among the states in regulating pseudoephedrine products.

``The simple fact is that without a uniform standard limiting access to pseudoephedrine, control of this epidemic will remain elusive,'' he said, surrounded by law enforcement officers at a news conference in the Oklahoma House.

Oklahoma became the first state to ban store sales of pseudoephedrine products after the state saw a 12,000 percent increase in meth labs in a decade.

The Oklahoma law _ the Trooper Nik Green, Rocky Eales and Matthew Evans Act _ was named for three Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers killed because of the actions of meth addicts.

Carson's proposal would make tablets containing pseudoephedrine a Schedule V drug under the Controlled Substances Act. The legislation would not affect the sale of the gel capsule and liquid forms of the substance, which cannot be used to make meth.

In most states, the new classification of the drug would mean consumers would have to go to pharmacies and show identifications to purchase certain cold medicines.

Carson said the attorney general will have the ability to remove the drugs from the Class V category if pharmaceutical companies are successful in devising a ``molecular lock'' that prevents meth producers from using the medicines.