WAL-MART 'UNBENDING' ON METH PLAN, GRASSLEY SAYS

Grassley Fears Weakening Of Iowa Bill

Washington, D.C. - As Congress works to crack down on methamphetamine
ingredients, mammoth retailer Wal-Mart is a driving force for a
national law that supersedes - and potentially weakens - tough state
laws such as Iowa's, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said Wednesday.

Iowa has a new law tightly restricting most sales of the decongestant
pseudoephedrine, in an attempt to cut access to a main ingredient in
the manufacture of meth, an illegal stimulant. The law requires
Iowans with stuffy noses to go to pharmacies to buy decongestants
that previously were over-the-counter remedies.

State officials reported a drop in meth lab seizures of more than 75
percent in the first full month with the new law.

But authorities have been worried that the federal Combat Meth Act
pending in Congress would override Iowa's law with more lenient
pseudoephedrine restrictions.

The bill may be debated today at a meeting of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, of which Grassley is a senior member. He told reporters in
a conference call that he has withdrawn as a co-sponsor of the Combat
Meth Act because of the dispute over federal pre-emption of state laws.

"It would weaken Iowa's law, and I don't want to weaken Iowa's law,"
said Grassley, a Republican. He said he would work with other
senators to improve the bill and strike that provision. If it
remains, he said, he probably will oppose the bill in committee.

The sponsors of the bill are Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California
and Republican Jim Talent of Missouri. Grassley said they will not
back down on their demand that the federal law override state laws.
He said retailers who sell pseudoephedrine want uniform laws across the nation.

Wal-Mart does appear to want to deal with the issue of how the
product is distributed, Grassley said, but has been "unbending" on
the issue of a uniform federal law. "Anybody that's dealing in a
multistate area, a multistate business, it's just a lot more simple
for their corporate leadership," he said.

In a written statement, Bob Dufour, director of pharmacy,
professional services and government relations for Wal-Mart, said
that meth use is a "national crisis" and that Wal-Mart applauds
states for stepping forward with laws.

He said Wal-Mart favors federal pre-emption to set a national
strategy and national procedures for dealing with the meth problem. A
solution also "should recognize the needs of the millions of
legitimate consumers while providing adequate restrictions to those
who use pseudoephedrine for illicit purposes," he said.

Grassley said the anti-meth bill suffers because meth is not used
widely in some states and so is not seen as a major issue.

"Understand that meth is mostly a problem west of the Mississippi,"
said Grassley.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa and his staff members have been working
with top state officials to push for revisions to the federal law,
and so far have succeeded in having it include all pseudoephedrine
products and allowing Iowa and other states to restrict sales to
pharmacies if they so choose.

But aides to Harkin, a Democrat, said Wednesday that even with the
changes, the bill is not yet what Harkin would like to see enacted.

[Sidebar]

Iowa Law vs Proposed Federal Law

SIMILAR: Iowa law requires and a proposed federal law would require
consumers to show identification and have their names entered into a
log before making purchases of products containing pseudoephedrine.
Both limit or would limit the amount of pseudoephedrine that a person
can purchase in a month.

DIFFERENT: Iowa's law restricts sales of all but the lowest-dose
liquid pseudoephedrine products to pharmacies. The federal plan would
give states authority to grant licenses to stores without pharmacies
- provided they are also approved by the U.S. attorney general.
Licenses would be approved "if the attorney general determines that
such registration is consistent with the public interest," according
to the proposal.