STATE: DROP IN METH SEIZURES SHOWS THAT TOUGH LAW WORKS

State officials say Iowa's new law restricting most pseudoephedrine
sales to pharmacies is working wonders: The number of methamphetamine
lab seizures declined more than 75 percent in June, the first full
month after the law took effect, compared to the same period last year.

"I'm very satisfied that they're starting to drop, as we hoped they
would, " said Ken Carter, chief of Iowa's narcotics bureau. "We're
already starting to free up resources so that we can go after the 80
percent of meth that is imported in the state."

However, Carter and other Iowa law-enforcement leaders fear Congress
will adopt more lenient pseudoephedrine restrictions under an amended
federal proposal that would override state laws. The Senate's
Judiciary Committee is scheduled to debate changes to the federal
Combat Meth Act as early as Thursday.

"I want to see something in writing that permits us to keep our
current law, so it cannot be weakened in any way," Carter said.

Hoping to cut access to a main ingredient in the manufacture of meth,
the Iowa Legislature this year required consumers to show
identification and have their names entered into a log before making
purchases of products containing pseudoephedrine. The law also limits
the amount of pseudoephedrine that a person can purchase in a month
and confines sales of all but the lowest-dose liquid pseudoephedrine
products to pharmacies.

Earlier this year, U.S. Sens. Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley said
they supported the federal proposal restricting pseudoephedrine as a
means to curtail the spread nationwide of the toxic, makeshift labs
that have endangered scores of children and taxed law-enforcement
resources. Meth is now the nation's No. 1 drug problem affecting law
enforcement agencies, according to several recent surveys.

However, the federal bill became more controversial after it was
amended to pre-empt state laws - in large part to appease concerns of
drug companies and retailers. Grassley, a ranking Republican on the
judiciary committee, and U.S. Rep. Tom Latham, who was appointed
recently to a congressional task force on rural meth issues, have
since said they would oppose any federal proposal that would
supersede state law.

"If states want to have tougher laws, they should have that right,"
Latham, a Republican, said on Monday.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, Polk County Attorney John Sarcone
and national law-enforcement groups have complained that the federal
bill allows wider sales of pseudoephedrine products than is currently
allowed under the Iowa law. That would open the door for more
meth-making, they said.

Representatives from Harkin's office, meanwhile, say they want to
assure the Combat Meth Act is as strong as Iowa's law. Passing a
federal law, they said, would ensure that meth-makers could not
travel from state to state, buying or stealing multiple boxes of the
decongestant where laws are most permissive.

However, Beth Stein, a Harkin staffer, also said U.S. Sens. Dianne
Feinstein, a Democrat from California, and Jim Talent, a Republican
from Missouri, have insisted that the federal legislation supersede state laws.

"The main sponsors have already bought off on the concept of
pre-emption," Stein said.

Miller and Sarcone have fought back in recent days, writing letters
to Harkin and Grassley to discourage them from supporting anything
less than what is on the books in Iowa.

Sarcone, who pressured state legislators this year to pass stringent
pseudoephedrine controls, said he opposes legislation that would
limit states' ability to address their own meth-related problems.

"We know what works, and we shouldn't have to settle for something
less," he said. "The human toll of this drug has just been
tremendous. I don't know how long we have to continue before everyone wakes up."