Senate passes med limit awareness bill

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Indiana lawmakers are trying to make us more aware of a law limiting the amount of cold medication a person can buy, a law designed to limit the production of methamphetamine.

I-Team 8 first reported on a Parke County grandmother wrongly jailed for failing to know the law.

When I-Team 8’s Rick Dawson met Sally Harpold last fall, she'd been arrested for buying too much cold medicine in one week. She insists she's no meth cook.

"Oh absolutely not,' laughs Harpold.”You might find me cooking in my kitchen, but it'd be brownies, cakes, cookies."

Sally didn't realize she was breaking a law limiting the amount of ephedrine or pseudoephedrine a person can buy. The law is designed to cut down on the illegal production of methamphetamine.

It's dangerous to make and dangerous to police who have to dispose of the drug's byproducts.

"Once you're hooked on this drug, you've gotta have access to it," warns Sgt. Niki Crawford, who heads up the Indiana State Police Meth Suppression Unit. "And the easiest access to it is to make it yourself."

Sally’s state Senator Tim Skinner, a Democrat from Terre Haute worked on a bill the Senate passed on Tuesday. To make more people aware of the law, the bill would require more signs at pharmacy counters explaining the restrictions.

"Had we had those there when Sally made her first purchase, it would have been visible. She could have read the sign and realized there was a limitation of how much of this product you can buy," said Sen. Skinner.

Despite the restrictions the meth cooks are getting around them. They hire others to buy the pills up to the legal limit, the pills are combined, and the meth cooks share the methamphetamine.

But this bill will also make retailers provide better records of whose buying cold medication. The records will be entered into a searchable electronic database that crosses state lines, not just to see if any buyers are trying to get around the law, but preventing people from accidently buying too much.

The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 46 to 4. It now heads to the House for consideration.