LAWMAKERS OFFER ALTERNATIVE ANTI-METHAMPHETAMINE PLAN

DES MOINES -- State lawmakers presented a plan Tuesday to Gov. Tom Vilsack
that would clamp down on the sale of a cold medication used to make
methamphetamine while stopping short of declaring it a controlled substance.

Vilsack has urged lawmakers to make the medicine, pseudoephedrine, a
Schedule V controlled substance that can be dispensed only by a pharmacist.
Iowans would need to show ID and sign a logbook to buy any product
containing the drug -- including countless over-the-counter cold remedies.

The drug is a key ingredient sought by meth makers who mix it with other
chemicals in secret labs. During 2004, law officers seized more than 1,300
labs.

On Tuesday, key lawmakers meeting with Vilsack offered an alternative plan.

It would require retailers to put all products containing pseudoephedrine
behind the counter or under lock and key. Iowans would show photo ID when
buying pseudoephedrine and a statewide database would track those purchases.

But the plan would not limit pseudoephedrine sales to pharmacies. Some
lawmakers are concerned that such a limit would create a hardship for
Iowans who live in small communities without a druggist.

"I'm not going to say Schedule V isn't going to happen," said Rep. Clel
Baudler, R-Greenfield, chairman of the Public Safety Committee. "I'm going
to say that behind lock and key is just as good."

He presented the plan to Vilsack along with Rep. Kevin McCarthy, D-Des
Moines, the top Democrat on the Public Safety Committee. Senate Judiciary
Committee co-chairs Sen. David Miller, R-Batavia, and Sen. Keith Kreiman,
D-Bloomfield also attended the meeting, but the Senate has not endorsed the
House's latest plan.

Passing a bill means navigating a House narrowly controlled 51-49 by
Republicans and a Senate split 25-25 between the GOP and Democrats. So far,
the Senate has shown the most resistance to making pseudoephedrine a
Schedule V controlled substance.

The problem, as state drug control officials see it, is that easily
accessible pseudoephedrine is feeding hundreds of secret meth labs in Iowa.
Shutting down those labs, they argue, would give law officers more time to
target traffickers who bring much of Iowa's meth in from other states and
Mexico.

Backers of new limits argue that meth cookers would be much less likely to
buy pseudoephedrine if they had to show ID, while locking it up behind the
counter would discourage theft. A database would help officials track drug
makers who might purchase the drug at several retail outlets.