Legislative meth fix hard to come by

December 30, 2005

TRACY KALYTIAK and MARY AMES/Frontiersman staff

Editor's note: This is the final part of a five-part series on meth and its effects on life in the Valley.

MAT-SU - Methamphetamine, an 87-year-old drug, started gaining notoriety in Alaska in recent years after people discovered they could coax its active ingredient out of cold tablets found on the shelves of just about any supermarket.

Some states have choked off the supply of pseudoephedrine needed to make the drug by putting certain cold medicines behind the counter and requiring people buying them to show identification and sign a logbook. Oklahoma officials claim laws requiring these two practices resulted in an almost immediate 80 percent decline in the number of meth labs busted in that state, prompting Alaska Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, and Sen. Gretchen Guess, D-Anchorage, to introduce House Bill 149 last session.

HB 149, widely endorsed by law enforcement, sailed through the House last spring with bipartisan support - no one opposed it there, though a few lawmakers were excused and a couple were absent. The bill stalled, however, once it arrived in the Senate Finance Committee, which is chaired by Mat-Su Sen. Lyda Green, a Republican who represents the region that has seen the state's highest number of meth-lab busts.

Green has said the bill would impose a heavy burden on businesses. Opponents of the bill say it could force businesses to shoulder an approximate $250,000 administrative expense, statewide, for the logbook provision.

&#8220We hadn't finished hearings on it,” Green said Wednesday of HB 149. &#8220There was not enough support in the committee. The logbook requirement is questionable, as far as being fully implemented statewide. I'm concerned, but 75 percent of places are already self-enforced, they contact cops and troopers if they have suspicions. They have to be concerned the minute they restrict sales within a state, the final product is imported. We'll just get Mexican meth brought in. Anytime we come up with a solution, criminals figure out a way to get around it. If people have to go up and ask for a box of Sudafed, they can avoid the system by having 10 people going to 30 stores. These people have 15 to 18 ID cards. They live in a different world than we do, they don't obey laws.”

Green said she didn't know if the committee would hold hearings on HB 149 or on a meth-related bill the governor's office plans to introduce, but she said she plans to schedule hearings for one of those bills early in the coming legislative session.

Karsten Rodvik, a spokesman for Gov. Frank Murkowski, said Wednesday that a draft of the governor's bill was not yet available for release.

&#8220There is work going on regarding pending legislation that would be of assistance to law enforcement, to more effectively deal with accessibility of key ingredients in manufacturing meth,” he said.

Rodvik said he did not have information on whether the pending bill contained a logbook requirement, as recommended by many in the law enforcement community, but added that money in the governor's budget proposal for the Department of Public Safety will make up for a loss in federal dollars local communities previously received for drug interdiction efforts.

&#8220There are proposed funds that would go to municipalities such as Palmer and Wasilla to make up for the loss in federal money,” Rodvik said. &#8220We're proactively seeking to minimize the impact of federal reductions because we know our drug operations are most effective when in partnership with local departments.”

Ramras said he hopes Senate Finance will take up his bill in the upcoming session and usher it through for a vote of the full Senate, with its enforcement provision &#8220teeth” intact.

&#8220There are still a lot of issues regarding personal privacy in Senate Finance,” Ramras said of reservations people in that committee had about the bill's logbook requirement.

Palmer-area resident Sue Mathis said she wouldn't mind signing a logbook to buy a box of Sudafed.

&#8220The people it would bother are the people going to use it for other reasons,” she said. &#8220No one wants a meth lab next door to them or down the street or in the Valley. If it cuts out one meth lab, it's worth it. I don't think it would be that much of an inconvenience for any stores around to keep a log. You have to sign for some prescription medicines already, so what's the big deal about adding a few over-the-counter medications? [Pharmacies] have to keep track of all of that, it's not like they have to set up a brand new database, install software. It's there already.”

Mathis said she believes drug companies oppose restrictions on pseudoephedrine sales.

&#8220It's money for them,” she said. &#8220If you were a drug company and you could sell 500 boxes as opposed to 50, what would you want? What do they care where it's used? The more they sell, the happier they are.”

The products voluntarily put behind the counters at Carrs, Fred Meyer and Three Bears contain pseudoephedrine as the single active ingredient. However, every one of those stores, although they tout voluntary compliance, has shelves full of products that contain pseudoephedrine, from 30 to 240 milligrams, bound with one or two other chemicals. Wal-Mart, on its Web site, states that it has voluntarily limited sales of over-the-counter products containing pseudoephedrine as well.

According to both Investigator Mike Ingram and Sgt. Robert Langendorfer, of the Mat-Su Drug Unit, the mixture with other chemicals isn't going to deter someone who wants to use the product to make meth. Langendorfer said that as long as pseudoephedrine products are available in other stores, or in products that are still on the shelves, the voluntary compliance of some stores putting some products behind the counter will only help a little.

Ramras said meth users could indeed get their drug from outside the state, as Sen. Green contended, but he argued that provisions in his bill would drastically cut the number of meth labs, thereby lessening the dangers those meth labs and their toxic chemicals present to children and neighbors and cutting the number of expensive state-mandated cleanups at those meth-lab locations.

&#8220If someone wants to get drunk, they're going to do it one way or another, but that doesn't mean you don't enforce on other issues,” Ramras said, comparing meth regulation to alcohol regulation. &#8220If you choke the supply [of pseudoephedrine], you'll see an 80 percent reduction like Oklahoma's. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that. Meth addicts are paranoid, and paranoid people don't want to show their identification. I want to see something go through that's more than just window dressing.”