F. Jim backs tighter regs on cold medicine

Republican talk radio hosts were quite put out when the Wisconsin legislature and Gov. Jim Doyle actually agreed on something and made it harder to buy the cold medicine that can be used as an ingredient to make methampetamine. They scoffed at the idea as ineffective and another example of big government poking its nose in where it didn't belong.

Now, we find in this story from Pennsylvania that Rep. F. Jim Sensenbrenner wants a federal law to crack down on -- sales of cold medicine.

Have at him, guys.

Congressmen call for limits on sales of cold medication
Bill aimed at stopping crystal meth operators, two tell Bucks County.

By Hal Marcovitz
Of The Morning Call

Two congressmen stopped in Richboro on Thursday to announce their support for legislation designed to take a key ingredient of crystal meth out of the hands of illegal lab operators.

U.S. Reps. Michael G. Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, stood before the former home of Joseph Ragnoli, one of four men charged this year with participating in a crystal meth ring that sold the drug in Bucks County.

The home, on a quiet tree-lined street, has been seized by the district attorney's office, which plans to sell it at auction later this month under the state's drug forfeiture program.

The lawmakers are cosponsors of the proposed ''Methamphetamine Epidemic Elimination Act.'' The legislation would make it illegal for pharmacies, convenience stores, supermarkets and other retailers to sell large quantities of cold medication containing pseudoephedrine to customers.

Pseudoephedrine is a common ingredient in cold medicine, but it is also the active ingredient in crystal meth, the form of methamphetamine that is cooked in crystal form and smoked in pipes.

According to Sensenbrenner, a 48-dose box of cold medicine contains less than 2 grams of pseudoephedrine. To make a pound of methamphetamine, he said, it takes about 400 ounces of pseudoephedrine, meaning an illegal lab operator would need hundreds of boxes to maintain productivity.

Typically, he said, a lab operator will walk into a pharmacy and buy all the cold medications on the shelves. The House bill makes it illegal for the retailer to sell more than two boxes at a time to an individual customer.

Sensenbrenner said similar legislation in the Senate requires pharmacists to keep cold medications off the shelves, and available for sale from behind the counter only.

''There is not only a problem with international drug dealers, but more and more meth is being made at home in basements and bathtubs,'' he said.