IOWA MUST FIGHT THE SCOURGE OF METH

Adopt Limits On Cold-Medicine Sales As Part Of Bigger Effort

Last fall, 350 Oak Park Elementary School students were evacuated to a
church in their Des Moines neighborhood after authorities stumbled upon
active methamphetamine labs fewer than 1,000 feet away.

"There was ether, anhydrous. It was cooking at the time, going pretty
good," a narcotics officer said at the time.

A single spark could have triggered explosions and exposure to hazardous
chemicals. Meth labs endanger entire communities, from neighbors to the police.

Meth use also has devastated families across Iowa, addicting adults and
endangering their children. Last year in Iowa, 1,034 adults lost their
parental rights to their children, most because of their meth addiction and
subsequent neglect or abuse.

For the sake of our children and communities, Iowa must stop this scourge.

In this legislative session, lawmakers will consider restricting sale of
medications like Sudafed that contain pseudoephedrine, a substance
extracted to make meth. Under the proposed legislation, only pharmacies
could sell any cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine. Buyers would have
to show identification, and their name would be placed on a log. The
expectation, based on encouraging results from a similar law in Oklahoma,
is that the move would reduce the number of meth labs in Iowa.

The Legislature should adopt the bill, while building in safeguards to
ensure civil liberties aren't trampled in the process. And Iowans must
realize that the law would be a small part of what this state must do to
address meth.

The proposed law will inconvenience some allergy sufferers, especially in
rural areas, who may not be able to replenish their favorite medicine if
they can't find an open pharmacy. And it won't necessarily reduce the use
of meth, at least not much anyway, because about 80 percent of meth in Iowa
is imported from outside the state. Plus, the desperate will always find
ways to get a fix or the ingredients to make one. If you search the phrase
"Purchase Sudafed" on Google, 30,100 Web sites pop up. If you visit
drugstore.com, you can buy 50 packages for $249.50.

But even if the measure makes little dent in meth use, reducing the number
of labs would be an important step. Besides improving safety, it would free
time and money spent by law enforcement in hunting down and cleaning up
labs, which are considered hazardous-waste sites. Police could better spend
their time tracking traffickers. The $2.5 million spent last year cleaning
up labs could better be spent on drug prevention and treatment.

At the same time, the new law must protect Iowans' civil liberties.
Pharmacy logs shouldn't be used by police for fishing expeditions. Proper
warrants for specific purposes must be obtained before law-enforcement
authorities can be given information about the drugs individuals purchased.
That provision must be included to ensure Fourth Amendment protections
against unreasonable searches.

And adoption of curbs on cold-medicine sales should not divert lawmakers'
attention from measures to reduce meth use - namely, education, treatment
and drug courts. The Legislature should couple adoption of the
cold-medication bill with measures to reallocate savings to those programs.

Prevention is the best approach to battling drug use. Teens, especially,
need to be educated about the life-threatening effects of drugs like meth.
Yet spending on drug-prevention programs in Iowa has dropped since 1995.

Tight funding also has limited drug treatment. More than 40,000 Iowans seek
help from drug-treatment centers each year. But many are put on waiting lists.

About a third of those seeking treatment need financial assistance to pay
for it. Yet the Legislature has cut dollars to treatment programs. Because
meth is a particularly difficult drug to kick, the government needs to fund
research for medications that can help ease cravings and increase the odds
of getting clean.

Drug courts work. A few exist in Iowa. Two programs for juveniles and
addicted mothers in Polk County have had tremendous success in diverting
drug users from jail and getting them treatment. Sending a drug addict to
prison is like throwing a drowning man a millstone. Drug courts help people
get clean instead of saddling them with a criminal record that hurts their
job prospects later.

Meth is a terrible drug that ruins lives. A law to restrict the sale of
cold medication is a necessary step but a limited one. The harder and more
expensive work requires the dedication and reallocation of dollars for
prevention and treatment.