[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3789 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3789

      To eliminate the safe-harbor exception for certain packaged 
  pseudoephedrine products used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 10, 2004

  Mr. Peterson of Minnesota introduced the following bill; which was 
 referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to 
    the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
      To eliminate the safe-harbor exception for certain packaged 
  pseudoephedrine products used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.

    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 Blister Pack 
Loophole Elimination Act of 2004''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) methamphetamine is a dangerous drug distributed 
        throughout the United States;
            (2) the manufacture, distribution, and use of 
        methamphetamine results in increased crime, damage to the 
        environment, hazardous waste that endangers the public, 
        expensive cleanup costs often borne by Federal, State, and 
        local government agencies, and broken families;
            (3) Congress has acted many times to limit the availability 
        of chemicals and equipment used in the manufacturing of 
        methamphetamine;
            (4) pseudoephedrine is 1 of the basic precursor chemicals 
        used in the manufacture of methamphetamine;
            (5) the United States Drug Enforcement Administration has 
        indicated that methamphetamine manufacturers often obtain 
        pseudoephedrine from retail and wholesale distributors, in both 
        bottles and ``blister packs'', and that the use of 
        pseudoephedrine tablets in blister packs is pervasive in the 
        illicit production of methamphetamine in both small and large 
        clandestine methamphetamine laboratories;
            (6) while current law establishes a retail sales limit of 9 
        grams for most pseudoephedrine products, including common cold 
        medicine, there is no such limit on the sale of blister-packed 
        pseudoephedrine products;
            (7) the 9 gram limit on bottled pseudoephedrine allows an 
        individual to purchase approximately 366 thirty-milligram 
        tablets at 1 time, which is more than enough for a typical 
        consumer in 1 transaction;
            (8) the United States Drug Enforcement Administration 
        recommended in March 2002 that retail distribution of 
        pseudoephedrine tablets in blister packages should not be 
        exempt from the 9 gram retail sales limit; and
            (9) in recommending legislation to correct the current 
        disparity in the law between bottled and blister-packed 
        pseudoephedrine tablets, the United States Drug Enforcement 
        Administration stated that ``The removal of this difference 
        would significantly prevent illicit access to this 
        methamphetamine precursor and would be easier for both the 
        government and the industry to monitor and would increase 
        compliance by retailers''.

SEC. 3. ELIMINATION OF BLISTER PACK EXEMPTION.

    (a) Regulated Transaction.--Section 102(39)(A)(iv)(I)(aa) of the 
Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802(39)(A)(iv)(I)(aa)) is amended 
by striking ``(except that'' and all that follows through ``1996)''.
    (b) Rule of Law.--To the extent that there exists a conflict 
between the amendment made by subsection (a) and section 401(d) of the 
Comprehensive Methamphetamine Control Act of 1996 (21 U.S.C. 802 note), 
the amendment shall control.
                                 <all>