Bill limits cold and allergy meds

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - One Indiana House committee approved an anti-meth bill last week.
    
The bill unanimously approved would allow consumers to buy up to 61 grams a year of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine.
    
That's about an eight-month total, when compared to the current law's monthly limit of 7.2 grams.
    
The Indiana House is considering stricter limits on purchases of cold and allergy medications that can be used to make methamphetamine.
    
It lowers the amount of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine a consumer can buy in a year.
    
It will also require all stores selling them to track sales.
    
But Terre Haute Drug Task Force's Denzil Lewis said that's ineffective.

“First off, this really sounds good, sounds like they're addressing the problem. Your first thought is, hey, they're addressing the problem. They're not really addressing the problem. That's ridiculous. It's a waste of paper is what it is,” said Lewis.
    
The House committee that approved this bill rejected tougher measures sought by some Indiana city officials.
   
These officials want to require people to have a doctor's prescription to buy pseudoephedrine-based products.
    
But opponents say it's unfair to force law-abiding citizens to pay for more doctor visits and likely higher drug costs.
    
Lewis said that's just an excuse and the answer isn't another negligent bill.
    
It's following in the footsteps of states with proven track records.
“I think the cure is what other states have done. Make it a scheduled drug where people have to go in, get a prescription for it. Call their doctor, get a prescription. The doctor can call it in for them. That's the cure. That's how other states have cured their problem,” said Lewis.
    
According to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Indiana has been at the center of the national meth epidemic and had the third-most meth lab seizures of any state last year.

“And again, it goes back, the legislators know this. So what do they do? They pass some watered down bill that they want us to think they're addressing the problem. They know how to cure the problem. They know what the problem is, they know the cure, but again, they refuse to do it,” said Lewis.
    
And Lewis says meth makers are just going to find a way around it.

“What these individuals do now, to overcome that, they're doing it now as a group. And they'll be eight or ten of them in a group. They'll go out, buy their limit of pills in a group. and every month, that's what they'll do,” said Lewis.
   
But the bill's advocates say it's another step in the right direction in the fight against meth.
    
The bill was approved last month by the State Senate and will now head to the full House for consideration.