SPEAKER: IS STATE GOING OVERBOARD?

DES MOINES -- Iowa House Speaker Christopher Rants said Thursday he
believes lawmakers are getting "carried away" in their zeal to crack down
on the sale of over-the-counter cold remedies that can be used to make
methamphetamine.

Rants, R-Sioux City, argues House and Senate bills go too far in seeking to
limit the sale of pseudoephedrine -- a common nasal decongestant found in
dozens of cold, flu and allergy medications.

Lawmakers are considering limits with hopes of keeping the drug out of the
hands of meth makers. Senators voted 50-0 Thursday for legislation
restricting where Iowans can get pseudoephedrine and how much they can buy
daily or monthly.

But ultimately, Rants will decide whether the bill is debated or shelved.

"It seems like public policy is being driven without really thinking about
what the ramifications are for average, law-abiding citizens," Rants said.

"Everybody wants to get the meth cookers. But people are afraid of politics
and that they're somehow going to be accused of being soft on crime if they
allow people to buy two boxes of Benadryl," he said.

Rants' chief complaint involves provisions in both bills that would limit
how many milligrams of pseudoephedrine consumers can purchase in one month.
The Senate bill sets a 6,000-milligram limit while a House bill sets the
cap at 4,000 milligrams.

The speaker points out, for example, that a one-month supply of the popular
allergy drug Claritin is 7,200 milligrams. Consumers only can get around
those caps if they receive a doctor's permission.

"If we proceed forward with these bills as currently drafted, we either
force Iowans who are law-abiding citizens to spend more money going to
doctors and buying prescription drugs, or we're going to turn them into
lawbreakers, or they're just going to do without," said Rants, who said he
takes Claritin for allergies.

"I'll get a box of Kleenex and suffer through it if this is what we do," he
said.

Backers of purchasing limits argue they're needed to stop meth makers from
driving from store to store to accumulate a stockpile of pseudoephedrine.
Drug control agents estimate that cookers need 30,000 milligrams of
pseudoephedrine to make what they call a "large" ounce of meth.

Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack wants legislators to make all pseudoephedrine a
Schedule V controlled substance that only could be dispensed by
pharmacists. His plan is similar to legislation approved last year in
Oklahoma, where agents argue meth lab seizers have dropped in its wake.

But Oklahoma's law allows consumers to buy up to 9,000 milligrams each
month. Rants said he might support such a cap here.