109 HR 1446 IH: Methamphetamine Abuse Prevention Act of 2005 U.S. House of Representatives 2005-03-17 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

I 109th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 1446 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES March 17, 2005 Mr. Souder (for himself, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mr. Peterson of Pennsylvania, Mr. Boehlert, Ms. Bordallo, Mr. Case, and Mr. Kennedy 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 amend the Controlled Substances Act to eliminate the safe-harbor exception for certain packaged pseudoephedrine products used in the manufacture of methamphetamine, and for other purposes.

1.

Short title; table of contents

(a)

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Methamphetamine Abuse Prevention Act of 2005. (b)

Table of contents

The table of contents of this Act is as follows: Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents Sec. 2. Findings Title I—Methamphetamine precursors Subtitle A—Amendments to Controlled Substances Act Sec. 101. Regulated transactions in methamphetamine precursor chemical products Sec. 102. Authority to establish production quotas Sec. 103. Penalties; authority for manufacturing; quota Subtitle B—Amendments to Controlled Substances Import and Export Act Sec. 111. Restrictions on importation; authority to permit imports for medical, scientific, or other legitimate purposes Sec. 112. Notice of importation or exportation; approval of sale or transfer by importer or exporter Subtitle C—General Provisions Sec. 121. Report by Director of Office of National Drug Control Policy regarding regulation of list I chemicals Title II—Resources for enforcement Sec. 201. Authorization of appropriations relating to COPS grants Sec. 202. Expansion of methamphetamine hot spots program to include personnel and equipment for enforcement, prosecution, and cleanup Sec. 203. Special United States attorneys' program Title III—Grant programs Subtitle A—Public Health Service Act Sec. 301. Grants for services for children of substance abusers Sec. 302. Local grants for treatment of methamphetamine abuse and related conditions Subtitle B—Bureau of Justice Sec. 303. Methamphetamine precursor monitoring grants

2.

Findings

The Congress finds as follows: (1)Methamphetamine, ecstasy, and other synthetic drugs are dangerous drugs distributed throughout the United States. (2)The manufacture, distribution, and use of methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs result in increased crime, damage to the environment, and hazardous waste that endanger the public, expensive cleanup costs often borne by Federal, State, and local government agencies, and broken families. (3)The Congress has acted many times to limit the availability of chemicals and equipment used in the manufacturing of methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs. (4)Pseudoephedrine is one of the basic precursor chemicals used in the manufacture of methamphetamine. (5)The 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 per transaction, which is significantly more than a typical consumer would need for legitimate purposes. (8)Reducing the current 9 gram threshold to 6 grams would allow consumers to continue purchasing sufficient medication for legitimate purposes and would assist efforts to reduce illegal use of the pseudoephedrine products. (9)The Drug Enforcement Administration recommended in March 2002 that retail distribution of pseudoephedrine tablets in blister packages should not be exempt from the general retail sales limit. (10)In recommending legislation to correct the current disparity in the law between bottled and blister-packed pseudoephedrine tablets, the 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. (11) In its October 2004 National Synthetic Drugs Action Plan, the Department of Justice and the Office of National Drug Control Policy also recommended that the manufacture, import, export, and distribution of pseudoephedrine and other synthetic drug precursor chemicals be subject to increased governmental oversight to reduce the danger of diversion to illegal drug production.