BILL EXTENDS SUSPICION TO LEGAL ACTIONS

If a person has 18 boxes of the decongestant Sudafed, a bill under
consideration by the Indiana General Assembly would give police the
authority to arrest him. The proposal, House Bill 1626, assumes that most
people wouldn't have that much of the drug unless they were making
methamphetamine, an addictive stimulant that is spreading across the Midwest.

Although that assumption may be logical, some other provisions in the bill
would extend police authority too far into surveillance of personal lives.

One Sudafed Maximum Strength Sinus and Allergy pill contains about 60
milligrams of pseudoephedrine. That would require about 400 pills - or 18
boxes - to make 24 grams, which would be the quantity that could trigger an
arrest.

It's hard to conceive that most people would need that much Sudafed at one
time. The bill would exempt pharmacists, medical wholesalers or retailers
and researchers from the standard.

But it's not so hard to believe that people could have quantities of
hydrogen peroxide, paint thinner, iodine or lithium batteries or other
common substances also listed in the bill. They are called methamphetamine
precursors. Possession of any one of those substances would become illegal
if police believed a person was planning to make meth.

The problem is that each of those substances is legal to buy and possess.
They're not illegal until cooked together with other ingredients to make
methamphetamine, an extremely dangerous process in itself. Police should
not have authority to arrest or search a person just because he possesses a
few gallons of paint thinner or several lithium batteries. It'd be like
arresting a person for possessing a can of spray paint on the assumption
that he plans to inhale fumes to get high.

The proposal also would make it a crime for a store clerk or anyone else to
sell any of the ingredients if they had advance knowledge that the
substance was to be used for making methamphetamine.

It also calls for adding as much as five years in prison to the sentence of
anyone convicted of making methamphetamines if a child was present. That's
good. Besides being illegal, the process of cooking methamphetamines can
produce harmful fumes, fires and explosions.

Current law makes it a crime to possess any two of the ingredients for
making meth. If the law needs to be rewritten, quantifying what is an
illegal amount of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine is a
good idea. But making it illegal to possess just one of the other
ingredients is not a good idea. It gives police more reasons to stop,
search and arrest people who have done nothing wrong. Additionally, it
could put store clerks in the position of feeling they need to report
anyone who purchases strange amounts of the legal substances, so that they
won't be accused of being co-conspirators.

The General Assembly should amend this bill. Keep the new definition of an
illegal quantity of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine, and
the protection for children, but retain the current law about other
methamphetamine precursors that requires the presence of two or more of
them before police can arrest a person.