METH LEGISLATION SENT TO COMMITTEE

House And Senate Leaders Are Still Trying To Work Out A Compromise That
Could Gain Wide Support

Leona Westphal believes she knows the meth-makers in her town, and she's
all for doing something to stop them. But don't ask the Corning convenience
store owner to quit selling cold and allergy tablets to curb Iowa's meth
production - not when those responsible for the scourge are sometimes
released after a few months in jail.

"I've been working at this store for 21 years. I've seen how the meth
problem has evolved," Westphal said. "But people who make and import meth
need to start paying for their crimes."

Cindy Krezek sacrificed a good job, an $80,000 house and her teenage
daughter's safety because of meth's grip. Now, the Waterloo woman wants
more than anything for legislators to put pharmacists in control of the
medicines that thousands of Iowans use to poison their lives.

"They need to take the pills away," said Krezek, 47, who will be sentenced
April 1 for meth-making.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is going to have to choose soon which of
the two women's views is more important, as they attempt to bring an end to
a nuanced, sometimes prickly debate over how best to handle Iowa's meth
production problem.

On Tuesday, the Iowa House sent to an 11-member conference committee Senate
Bill 169 - a measure approved by the Senate, then overhauled by the House -
that legislators hope will become the toughest law in the country aimed at
dramatically reducing meth-making.

Even before House and Senate leaders formally appointed committee members
on Tuesday, they were busy trying to broker a compromise that could quickly
win support in both houses.

One proposal, Senate Republican Co-President Jeff Lamberti said, would
allow retailers like Westphal to continue selling small amounts of liquid
medicines or gel caps containing pseudoephedrine, as long as the products
were locked up or behind sales counters, and sales were logged. The measure
would allow consumers, especially parents of young children, to buy in all
stores some of the most popular pseudoephedrine products. Higher doses of
the medicines, or those containing the tablets that are widely used to cook
meth, would be placed in pharmacies for sale.

Another proposal, which passed unanimously last week in the House, would
require all pseudoephedrine medicines - liquid or tablet - to be sold in
pharmacies. Buyers would have to show identification and sign a log, and
the sales could also be tracked by a drug-monitoring system currently under
development by the Iowa Pharmacy Board.

Whether legislators will continue to allow all retailers to sell the
low-dose products may hinge on conference committee members. Some committee
members, such as Rep. Clel Baudler, a Greenfield Republican, and Rep. Kevin
McCarthy, a Des Moines Democrat, have previously voiced support for the
pharmacy-only proposal. Others, such as Sens. Bob Brunkhorst, a Waverly
Republican, and Keith Kreiman, a Bloomfield Democrat, have supported
low-dose retail exemptions.

Once the group's proposal is presented to the full House and Senate,
legislators can accept it, reject it, or appoint a new conference committee.

[Sidebar]

Today's meeting

The conference committee on Senate Bill 169 restricting sales of
pseudoephedrine will meet at noon today in Room 22 of the Senate. The
meeting is public.

The original Senate bill allowed Iowans to buy up to two small packages of
pseudoephedrine products in stores, requiring products containing more than
360 milligrams in a package to be sold in pharmacies. Last week, the Iowa
House approved an amended version of the bill that would require all
pseudoephedrine products to be sold in pharmacies, and placed a cap on
sales to any given customer over any 30-day period at 7,500 milligrams.

Legislators were considering a compromise Tuesday that would allow stores
to sell only small amounts of liquid products, keeping tablet forms in
pharmacies.

Conference committee members:

Senators: Bob Brunkhorst, R-Waverly; Keith Kreiman, D-Bloomfield; Brad
Zaun, R-Urbandale; David Miller, R-Fairfield; Steve Warnstadt, D-Sioux
City; Tom Hancock, D-Dubuque.

Representatives: Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield; Kevin McCarthy, D-Des Moines;
Cecil Dolecheck, R-Mount Ayr; Tom Sands, R-Columbus Junction; Jim Lykam,
D-Davenport.