[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4690 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4690

   To require that pseudoephedrine be dispensed only upon a written 
    prescription of a licensed practitioner, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 9, 2002

  Mr. Berry introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To require that pseudoephedrine be dispensed only upon a written 
    prescription of a licensed practitioner, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Methamphetamine Elimination Act of 
2002''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) The United States faces increasing danger related to 
        methamphetamine trafficking, use, and abuse.
            (2) The number of methamphetamine-related emergency room 
        admissions has more than doubled since 1991, rising from around 
        4,900 to over 10,000.
            (3) Methamphetamine-producing clandestine laboratories have 
        been identified by the Drug Enforcement Administration as a 
        significant threat to the Nation's public health and safety.
            (4) Methamphetamine production has expanded across the 
        Nation, from California, to the Pacific Northwest, to the 
        Midwest and Southeast. There is evidence that methamphetamine 
        production is now spreading to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
            (5) Methamphetamine producers can easily purchase most of 
        the ingredients necessary to manufacture methamphetamine from 
        any retail store.
            (6) The vast majority of methamphetamine laboratory 
        operators obtain their precursor chemicals from domestic 
        sources.
            (7) Pseudoephedrine is an essential precursor chemical in 
        the production of methamphetamine, which prompted the Drug 
        Enforcement Administration to initiate several investigations 
        regarding the chemical's sale and distribution.
            (8) Efforts to reduce access to pseudoephedrine by 
        methamphetamine producers, such as blister packaging and sales 
        thresholds, have not been effective deterrents, and 
        pseudoephedrine tablets remain pervasive in the illicit 
        production of methamphetamine.

SEC. 3. TREATMENT OF PSEUDOEPHEDRINE AS A PRESCRIPTION DRUG.

    The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall treat 
pseudoephedrine as a drug subject to section 503(b)(1) of the Federal 
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 353(b)(1)).
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