OLYMPIA — A bill that seeks to restrict the amount of over-the-counter drugs reaching the hands of methamphetamine cooks has garnered bipartisan support.
The drugs in question are ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and phenylpropanolamine, which can be commonly found in cold and asthma medications such as Sudafed and Benadryl.
When combined with iodine, available in pharmacies, and red phosphorus, found on matchbook strike pads, the drugs, called precursors, can be used to manufacture meth — a powerful, highly addictive and widely available stimulant.
Rep. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, is the prime sponsor of House Bill 2844. Lovick, speaker pro-tem, expects the bill to be voted out of the House Criminal Justice Committee next week. The legislation then heads to the Rules Committee, of which he is chairman.
The Senate version, Senate Bill 6478, is expected to be voted on by the Senate Health and Long-term Care Committee next week.
State legislators passed a bill in 2001 that restricted the retail sale of meth ingredients. The bill also made it a gross misdemeanor for a person to possess more than 15 grams of such substances.
While that legislation helped police put away some criminals, law enforcement officials argue that more needs to be done. The ingredients still are being sold at a rate far exceeding the demand for cold remedies, bill proponents say, and new ingredients are cropping up as meth cooks turn to creative ways of evading prosecution.
This year’s legislation would place stricter licensing requirements on retailers who sell meth ingredients. Shopkeepers who sell the medications without registering with the state could be charged with a class C felony.
Under the proposed legislation, shopkeepers would be prohibited from selling the ingredients if such sales exceed 10 percent of the shopkeeper’s total sales.
Critics of both the House and Senate bills argue that the legislation will turn neighborhood business people, rather than drug cooks, into criminals.
At Thursday’s Senate hearing, T.K. Bentler of the Washington Association of Neighborhood Stores voiced opposition to parts of SB 6478.
"We don’t want additional record keeping," Bentler said. "It adds another agency to come and audit our books."
Bentler advocated a more straightforward, merchant-friendly solution — restricting the amount of the products sent to stores.
However, Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart argued that companies should jump at the chance to have a stake in the welfare of their neighborhoods. Bart said companies should view efforts to crack down on meth as good public relations, not as a measure that might cut their profits.
Snohomish County prosecutor Janice Ellis supports additional legislation, likening legislative efforts against meth precursors to "putting tools in the tool belt of law enforcement in addressing the meth scourge."
Ellis and Bart agree that lawmakers need to continue updating the restricted precursors as meth cooks use new ingredients to manufacture the drug.
Since the first precursor drug bill was passed, the number of meth labs has decreased, according to the state Department of Ecology. In 2003, the department cleaned up 1,480 labs, down from 1,886 in 2001. Almost 100 were discovered in Snohomish County in 2003.
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