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Friday, February 05, 2010

Ind. Law - "Senate bill seeks to clarify meth law"

The ILB has been following two issues related to methamphetamine in Indiana.

  1. Policing purchases of over-the-counter cold medicines to make methamphetamine. See, for example, this Jan. 2, 2010 ILB entry.

  2. Cleaning up after meth. See, for example, this ILB entry from Oct. 29, 2009, and this comprehensive one from July 14, 2009, headed "Illnesses Afflict Homes With a Criminal Past - meth contamination."
Kevin Allen of the South Bend Tribune reported yesterday on legislation that would address the first issue, in a story headed "Indiana Senate bill seeks to clarify meth law: Stores would have to inform customers when buying cold medicines." The bill, SB 285, has passed the Senate. A quote:
The bill will not require people to have a prescription to buy medicines containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, but retailers will be able to refuse selling those products to people who have already bought their limit for a given period of time.

In the current system, people can buy more than the limit but will be arrested later. That has led to instances where people unknowingly bought an illegal amount of the decongestants and were arrested, even though they had no plans to make methamphetamine.

One high-profile incident involved a Parke County grandmother who was arrested in July, four months after buying a box of Zyrtec-D for her husband and a box of Mucinex-D for her daughter in the same week.

What of the second issue - dealing with the hazardous residue of meth labs? The ILB is not aware of any legislation even introduced this year to address this problem about which so much has been written in state and national publications.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 5, 2010 09:50 AM
Posted to Indiana Law