Police Group Asks Congress to Get Tough on Meth Not Cold Medicine

Police Group Asks Congress to Get Tough on Meth Not Cold Medicine

3/7/2005 10:51:00 AM

To: National Desk and Political Reporter

Contact: Ted Deeds of the Law Enforcement Alliance of America, 703-847-2677

WASHINGTON, March 7 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Law Enforcement Alliance of America (LEAA) today announced its support for congressional efforts to provide much-needed resources to local law enforcement agencies to enable them to get tough on methamphetamine production and distribution. At the same time, LEAA expressed its strong reservations about proposals to place common over-the-counter cold and allergy medicines on Schedule V of the Schedule of Controlled Substances, in an effort to control access to pseudoephedrine, which can be used in home Meth labs in making methamphetamine.

In discussing the Combat Meth Act of 2005 (S. 103 and H.R. 314), LEAA spokesman Ted Deeds commended its sponsors for measures in the bill that would increase funding for law enforcement, prosecution, and cleanup. These provisions would allocate new resources to improve enforcement of existing restrictions on access to large amounts of pseudoephedrine, identify and shutdown small-scale home production, and take local cookers and distributors off the streets. "More effective enforcement of existing laws would go a long way toward eliminating small-scale Meth production in the U.S.," Deeds commented.

LEAA takes issue, however, with provisions in the bill that would place cold medicines on Schedule V. "Criminalizing the purchase of common over-the-counter medicine is an unnecessary and harmful step that is unlikely to affect the volume of methamphetamine on the street," said Deeds. The amount of pseudoephedrine that can be obtained in cold medicine is tiny compared to the volume of meth and meth chemicals pouring in over the border. LEAA cited a recent DEA sting operation involving foreign drug traffickers smuggling meth chemicals that uncovered nearly three tons of powdered pseudophedrine and nearly two million pseudophedrine pills. The DEA estimates that more than 80 percent (perhaps as much as 95 percent) of methamphetamine used in the United States is supplied by these large-scale operations overseen largely by Mexican drug cartels.

LEAA will be asking Members of Congress to support legislation that gets tough on meth dealers and drug cartels instead of making cold medicine increasingly difficult to obtain for law-abiding Americans. LEAA will be asking for more resources on border smuggling operations, noting that such efforts will have a two- fold effort by aiding the war on terror as they increase the security of America's borders. LEAA also supports funding for a massive public education effort to alert everyone in America -- small town and big city alike -- to the very real threat posed by the exceptionally addictive and destructive drug, Methamphetamine.

Deeds pointed out that LEAA supports efforts to increase resources to enforce existing laws and restrictions, but opposes additional laws that merely add restrictions without creating an effective mechanism or providing sufficient resources to enforce them.

With over 75,000 Members and Supporters nationwide, the Law Enforcement Alliance of America (LEAA) is the nation's largest coalition of law enforcement professionals, crime victims, and concerned citizens dedicated to making America safer. http://www.leaa.org

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