[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 12, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1864-S1867]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Reid and Mr. 
        Kyl):
  S. 1607. A bill to control access to precursor chemicals used to 
manufacture methamphetamine and other illicit narcotics, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.


                  METHAMPHETAMINE CONTROL ACT OF 1996

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce, along with 
Senators Grassley, Reid, and Kyl, the Methamphetamine Control Act of 
1996. This is legislation that, first, increases the regulation of 
precursor chemicals necessary to produce methamphetamine, a dangerous 
narcotic also known as speed, crank or ice.
  Second, it increases the penalties for possession of controlled 
chemicals or paraphernalia used to make methamphetamine.
  This legislation has been drafted over the past 6 months with the 
input of the Drug Enforcement Agency, the California Attorney General's 
Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, the California Narcotics Officers 
Association, and local, State, and Federal law enforcement and 
prosecutors. I have a particular interest in this issue because of the 
ravaging effects that methamphetamine has had in my own State and other 
States in the Southwest.
  Let me, for just a moment, explain how serious this problem is today. 
Methamphetamine has been around for a long time. But what once was a 
small-scale drug operation run by motorcycle gangs has now been taken 
over by at least one Mexican drug cartel. According to DEA, it is a 
multibillion-dollar industry in America.
  California has become the front line in this new and dangerous drug 
war. DEA has designated California as the ``source country,'' a source 
country for methamphetamine, much like Colombia is the source country 
for cocaine. It has identified that 93 percent of the methamphetamine 
seized nationwide has its point of origin in California.
  The explosion of this drug is being documented in hospital emergency 
rooms around California, and the epidemic is spreading eastward. In 
Sacramento just 4 weeks ago, law enforcement made the largest seizure 
in county history--80 pounds; street value, $2.5 million.
  Large-scale labs are now commonplace. Last year in the Central 
Valley, law enforcement convicted a man who manufactured in excess of 
900 pounds with a street value of $5 million. Literally hundreds of 
illicit laboratories exist throughout the State. In two counties alone, 
Riverside and San Bernardino, there were 589 methamphetamine labs 
discovered in 1995.
  Labs can be in apartments, in mobile homes, in moving vehicles, and 
in hotel rooms. They can be dismantled in a matter of hours. They are 
explosive, toxic, and they burn. Law enforcement has indicated that 
drug dealers come in, set up, produce their drugs in hotels, and leave.
  The California Environmental Protection Agency expects that 1,150 
sites will require cleanup by the end of this year in California. Most 
of the chemicals--iodine, refrigerants, hydrochloric gas, sodium 
hydroxide--are toxic and, in the case of red phosphorous, one of the 
precursor chemicals, highly flammable and explosive.
  Two months ago, a mobile home in Riverside used as a methamphetamine 
lab exploded, killing three small children. Incredibly enough, the 
mother of these children pleaded with neighbors that they not call for 
help. Before firefighters could find the children's burnt bodies, the 
woman walked away from the scene.
  Police in Phoenix say methamphetamine is mainly responsible for the 
40-percent jump in homicides the city is experiencing.
  In Contra-Costa County, law enforcement reports that methamphetamine 
is

[[Page S1865]]

involved in 89 percent of domestic disputes.
  Last year in San Diego, rival methamphetamine smuggling rings were 
responsible for 26 homicides.
  In 1994, among all adults arrested in the San Diego area, 42 percent 
of men and 53 percent of women tested positive for amphetamines. Sutter 
Memorial Hospital in Sacramento says that methamphetamine-affected 
babies now outnumber crack-addicted babies 7-1.
  The Methamphetamine Control Act which we are introducing today is 
carefully crafted. It is a targeted piece of legislation. It is drafted 
with the help of Federal, State, and local law enforcement, and it is 
aimed at the supply side of the problem.

  This bill would increase criminal penalties that can be applied to 
large-scale methamphetamine manufacturers throughout our Nation. It 
restricts access to the precursor chemicals used in mass quantities to 
produce methamphetamine.
  It would increase the penalties for possession of controlled 
chemicals or specialized equipment like the triple-neck flasks used to 
make methamphetamine.
  It would add chemicals used to make methamphetamine--iodine, red 
phosphorous, and hydrochloric gas--to the Chemical Diversion and 
Trafficking Act.
  It imposes a civil ``three strikes and you're out'' law, for 
companies that are found to be selling chemicals used to make 
methamphetamine.
  There are in our State about seven rogue chemical companies. Anyone 
with $100 and a mail order catalog can put themselves into business in 
manufacturing methamphetamine. They can buy large-scale quantities of 
those chemicals that go into making methamphetamine.
  This bill would double the maximum criminal penalty for possession of 
a chemical identified under the Chemical Diversion and Trafficking Act 
in methamphetamine production and would increase the maximum criminal 
penalty from 4 to 10 years for those who possess the specialized 
equipment used to manufacture methamphetamine.
  It would remove the loophole on pseudoephedrine in the Controlled 
Substances Act. Pseudoephedrine, a common ingredient in many over-the-
counter medicines, is now used as a substitute for ephedrine to make 
methamphetamine.
  I have met with retailers and manufacturers of over-the-counter 
medicines and I understand the concerns about regulations which the DEA 
has proposed to control the illicit diversion of pseudoephedrine to 
make methamphetamine. I intend to work with these groups over the 
coming weeks to ensure that the 37 million Americans who rely on these 
products continue to have access to them.
  We are creating an informal advisory group comprised of executives of 
chemical manufacturers and supply house companies, DEA officials, and 
other law enforcement agencies to devise strategies to see that this 
law is responsibly and sensibly enforced.
  This bill includes a sense-of-the-Congress resolution supporting 
efforts for global chemical control.
  The point is that many chemicals used to make methamphetamine, such 
as ephedrine, are tightly controlled in the United States but are 
literally smuggled into the United States through countries with little 
or no control, like Mexico. This legislation would express the sense of 
the Congress that ephedrine-producing countries should require approval 
from the Mexican Government for shipments of ephedrine and 
pseudoephedrine to Mexico, where they then come into this country.
  I am very pleased, Mr. President, that this is a bipartisan effort. I 
am delighted to have the cosponsorship of Senators Grassley and Kyl. I 
note that this bill is also being introduced in the House today by 
Congressman Riggs and Congressman Vic Fazio.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 1607

       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 Control Act 
     of 1996''.

     SEC. 2. REGULATION OF CHEMICAL SUPPLY HOUSES.

       Section 310 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 
     830) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
     subsection:
       ``(d)(1) Any chemical supply house that sells a listed 
     chemical, after having been provided a warning under 
     paragraph (2) within the previous 10 years, to a person who 
     uses, or intends or attempts to use, the listed chemical, or 
     causes the listed chemical to be used or attempted to be 
     used, to manufacture or produce methamphetamine shall--
       ``(A) be subject to a civil penalty of not more than 
     $250,000; or
       ``(B) for the second violation of this subsection, be 
     ordered to cease the production and sale of any chemicals.
       ``(2) The Attorney General, acting through the 
     Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, shall 
     provide a written warning to each chemical supply house that 
     violates paragraph (1).
       ``(3) For purposes of this subsection, the term `chemical 
     supply house' means any manufacturer, wholesaler, or 
     retailer, who owns, or who represents the owner of, any 
     operation or business enterprise engaging in regulated 
     transactions.
       ``(4) All amounts received from enforcement of the civil 
     penalty under paragraph (1) shall be used by the 
     Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency for the 
     environmental cleanup of clandestine laboratories used, or 
     intended or attempted to be used, to manufacture 
     methamphetamine.''.

     SEC. 3. INCREASED PENALTIES FOR POSSESSION AND DISTRIBUTION 
                   OF LISTED CHEMICALS.

       (a) In General.--Section 401(d) of the Controlled 
     Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 841(d)) is amended by striking ``10 
     years'' and inserting ``20 years in a case involving a list I 
     chemical or 10 years in a case involving a list II 
     chemical''.
       (b) Amendment of Sentencing Guidelines.--The United States 
     Sentencing Commission shall amend the Federal Sentencing 
     Guidelines to reflect the amendment made by subsection (a).

     SEC. 4. INCREASED PENALTIES FOR MANUFACTURE AND POSSESSION OF 
                   EQUIPMENT USED TO MAKE METHAMPHETAMINE.

       Section 403(d) of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 
     843(d)) is amended--
       (1) by striking ``(d) Any person'' and inserting ``(d)(1) 
     Except as provided in paragraph (2), any person''; and
       (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
       ``(2) Any person who, with the intent to manufacture 
     methamphetamine, violates subsection (a) (6) or (7), shall be 
     sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not more than 10 
     years, a fine of not more than $30,000, or both.''.

     SEC. 5. REGULATION OF PSEUDOEPHEDRINE.

       Section 102(39)(A)(iv) of the Controlled Substances Act (21 
     U.S.C. 802(3(9)(A)(iv)) is amended by striking ``ephedrine'' 
     each place it appears and inserting ``ephedrine or 
     pseudoephedrine,''.

     SEC. 6. ADDITION OF SUBSTANCES TO DEFINITION OF LISTED 
                   CHEMICALS.

       Section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 
     802) is amended--
       (1) in paragraph (34) by adding at the end the following 
     new subparagraph:
       ``(Y) Iodine.''; and
       (2) in paragraph (35), by adding at the end the following 
     new subparagraphs:
       ``(I) Red phosphorous.
       ``(J) Hydrochloric gas.''.

     SEC. 7. SUPPORT FOR INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS TO CONTROL DRUGS.

       It is the sense of the Congress that--
       (1) the rise in manufacture and usage of the illegal 
     narcotic methamphetamine is of major concern to the United 
     States;
       (2) a substantial portion of the ephedrine used to make 
     methamphetamine is smuggled across the United States-Mexico 
     border;
       (3) the countries of China, India, the Czech Republic, 
     Germany, and Slovenia are the largest manufacturers of 
     ephedrine and pseudoephedrine;
       (4) one means of preventing the international diversion of 
     ephedrine and pseudoephedrine is the letter of nonobjection, 
     which requires that the government of a country receiving a 
     shipment of the chemical is aware of and approves the 
     shipment, the quantity involved, the company receiving the 
     shipment, and the ultimate use of the chemical;
       (5) therefore, all ephedrine and pseudoephedrine producing 
     countries should require letters of nonobjection from the 
     Mexican government before exporting ephedrine or 
     pseudoephedrine to that country; and
       (6) all ephedrine and pseudoephedrine producing countries 
     and Mexico should cooperate in any way possible to deter the 
     smuggling of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine into the United 
     States.

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, today I am pleased to introduce the 
Methamphetamine Control Act of 1996 with my colleague Senator 
Feinstein. This bipartisan bill takes aim at a rapidly growing problem 
in America--the abuse of methamphetamine, known on the street as meth 
or crank.
  I am from Iowa--a rural State which most people do not associate with 
rampant crime or drug use. But in Iowa today, meth use has increased 
dramatically. According to a report prepared

[[Page S1866]]

by the Governor's alliance on substance abuse, seizures of 
methamphetamine in Des Moines increased an astounding 4,000 percent 
from 1993 to 1994. I repeat: meth seizures in Des Moines increased by 
4,000 percent. The increase statewide was 400 percent. These numbers 
are scary, Mr. President. According to the Iowa Department of Public 
Health, 7.3 percent of Iowans seeking help from substance abuse 
treatment centers in 1995 cited meth as their primary addiction. That's 
up over 5 percent from 1994, when only 2.2 percent cited meth as their 
primary addiction.
  Why has meth become such a problem? I do not think anyone knows 
definitively, but experts have been able to identify some of the 
reasons. Meth is cheap; a meth high lasts for a very, very long time, 
so you get more for your money; and perhaps most disturbingly, meth 
does not have the stigma associated with cocaine and crack. Kids know 
that crack is dangerous. But they have not yet learned that meth is.
  In Waterloo, IA, though, people are beginning to learn this sad and 
painful lesson. According to the New York Times, a 17-year-old Iowan 
who had been a good boy, descended into meth addiction. His behavior 
changed for the worse. Last October, this young man checked himself 
into the hospital because he believed that he had the flu. He died only 
days later because meth had so destroyed his immune system that he 
developed a form of meningitis. I will never forget the words of this 
boy's mother: ``He made some wrong decisions and this drug sucked him 
away.'' I ask unanimous consent that this New York Times article be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the New York Times, Feb. 22, 1996]

         Good People Go Bad in Iowa, And a Drug Is Being Blamed

                           (By Dirk Johnson)

       Newton, IA. Feb. 16.--In this small town surrounded by corn 
     fields, nothing but Sunday morning church bells ever made 
     much noise, and the jail sat three-quarters empty most of the 
     time.
       And then about a year or so ago, things started to go 
     haywire.
       Crime began to soar, coupled with an outbreak of irrational 
     behavior; a man with a spotless record pulled a string of 
     burglaries; some parents suddenly became so neglectful that 
     their children were taken away; a man fled his workplace to 
     get a gun, terrified that helicopters were coming after him; 
     motorists in routine traffic stops greeted the police with 
     psychotic tirades.
       Prosecutors linked all of these cases and many more in this 
     town of 15,000 people to the influx of the drug 
     methamphetamine, and its frequent side-effects of paranoia 
     and violent behavior.
       A problem for several years in California and other 
     Southwestern states, the drug is now making its way across 
     America, ruining lives and families along the way and raising 
     the concern of policy makers in Washington.
       ``Meth seems to have taken control of these people,'' said 
     Steve Johnson, the prosecutor here in Jasper County, where 
     the 24-bed jail is now overflowing, and 90 percent of the 
     inmates have a problem with the drug. ``It's scary stuff. 
     We're pretty frustrated and don't know exactly what to do to 
     get it under control.''
       The drug, also known as crank or ice, is a stimulant that 
     is swallowed, snorted or injected. It is much cheaper than 
     cocaine, and its high lasts longer, the authorities say. 
     Users may stay awake for several days at a stretch, feeling 
     euphoric and full of energy before finally plunging into 
     terrible depression and paranoia.
       ``This is the most malignant, addictive drug known to 
     mankind,'' said Dr. Michael Abrams of Broadlawn Medical 
     Center in Des Moines, where more patients were admitted 
     during the past year for abuse of methamphetamine than for 
     alcoholism. ``It is often used by blue-collar workers, who 
     feel under pressure to perform at a fast pace for long 
     periods. And at first, it works. It turns you into wonder 
     person. You can do everything--for a while.''
       Crack, wicked as it is, cannot compare to the destructive 
     power of methamphetamine, Dr. Abrams said, He said the drug, 
     because of its molecular structure, is more stimulating to 
     the brain than any other drug.
       The effects of cocaine, whether snorted or smoked, might be 
     gone from the brain in 5 or 10 minutes, Dr. Abrams said, 
     while methamphetamine continues to work on receptors in the 
     brain for 8 to 24 hours.
       The price of the drug here might be $100 a gram, about the 
     same as that for powdered cocaine, but would last a user for 
     a week while the cocaine would probably be used in a day.
       Cocaine, which comes from the coca plant, is a natural 
     substance. Methamphetamine is purely synthetic. ``The body 
     has enzymes that break down cocaine,'' he said, ``but not 
     with methamphetamine.''
       Methamphetamine causes psychotic and violent reactions, he 
     said, because the drug throws out of control the production 
     of the brain chemical dopamine, which plays an important part 
     in movement, thought and emotion, as is the case with 
     schizophrenia. Over time, the drug damages the brain.
       ``A person addicted to this stuff looks and acts exactly 
     like a paranoid schizophrenic,'' he said. ``You cannot tell 
     any difference.''
       He said that a crack addict could reach the same point of 
     psychotic behavior but that it would take ``much longer and 
     much more of the drug.''
       The drug, combined with the effects of sleep deprivation, 
     can cause people to go mad, with ghastly consequences. In a 
     case last July, a man in New Mexico, who was high on 
     methamphetamine and alcohol, beheaded his 14-year-old son and 
     tossed the severed head from his van window onto a busy 
     highway.
       The drug has already exacted a big death toll in Western 
     states. In California, it was blamed for more than 400 deaths 
     from overdose and suicide in 1994, the latest year with 
     complete records on the drug. In Phoenix, it killed 122 
     people in 1994, the authorities said.
       Here in Iowa, the ravages of the drug have reached what 
     law-enforcement and health officials call an epidemic level. 
     The police in Des Moines seized $4.5 million worth of 
     methamphetamine in the last year alone.
       And for the first time in Polk County, which includes Des 
     Moines, arrests for drugs now surpass the number of arrests 
     for drunken driving. Methamphetamine accounts for 65 percent 
     of the drug arrests.
       The drug is often manufactured in makeshift laboratories in 
     rural areas, where the stench given off during its production 
     is more likely to go undetected, and where law-enforcement 
     agencies are more thinly spread.
       Drug agents found seven such laboratories in Iowa last 
     year. In the first six weeks of this year, they found five 
     more. One of them, in a house trailer near the small town of 
     Centerville, exploded and burned a man over 40 percent of his 
     body.
       The drug is also making its way into schools throughout 
     Iowa, with some ghastly consequences.
       One night about a year ago, 17-year-old Travis Swope of 
     Waterloo sat down with his parents, Tim and Keely, and began 
     to tremble. ``I'm scared,'' the boy told them. He said he 
     could not eat or sleep, and that he had been taking a drug 
     called crank.
       His parents, who had never heard of the drug, were shocked, 
     but supportive. Mr. Swope, a maintenance worker at the John 
     Deere Company, said his union insurance would cover drug 
     treatment. The next day, however, Travis said he would quit 
     on his own. And his parents believed him.
       ``I was in denial,'' Mr. Swope said. ``I though it was 
     something he'd get through.''
       Travis, who was a first-rate athlete, seemed better for a 
     while. But then he lost weight and looked pale, all the while 
     insisting that he was not using drugs. Then this manner 
     changed.
       ``He had never been disrespectful to us,'' his mother said. 
     ``But all of a sudden, he'd be like, `I'll be home when I 
     decide to come home!' That wasn't Travis. It was like he was 
     a different kid.''
       At the end of September, there was a blow-up with his 
     father, and Travis was told to leave the house.
       On Oct. 6, Travis checked into a hospital, feeling as if he 
     had a terrible case of the flue. In fact, the drug had broken 
     down his immune system and he had developed a form of 
     meningitis. Ten days later, he was dead.
       ``Learn about this drug, and sit down with your sons and 
     daughters,'' said Mrs. Swope, her voice breaking with emotion 
     as she talked with a reporter. ``I learned way too late, and 
     I feel like I failed him. Travis was a really good kid--not a 
     perfect kid. He made some wrong decisions, and this drug 
     sucked him away.''
       Mr. Swope said there were times he avoided discussions 
     about drugs with his son, because he feared it would lead to 
     a confrontation. ``But I would give everything to have him 
     sitting here now,'' he said, ``being mad at me.''
       While it seems puzzling why otherwise intelligent people 
     would risk ruining their lives with this poison, drug 
     counselors point out that stimulants have long held appeal in 
     American culture. Going back more than a generation, 
     students, athletes and workers have sought endurance by 
     taking ``uppers'' or ``speed'' in tablets called Black 
     Cadillacs or White Crosses.
       The old country song by Dave Dudley, ``Six Days on the 
     Road,'' spoke in the voice of a long-haul trucker in a big 
     hurry: ``I'm taking little white pills, and my eyes are open 
     wide.''
       Methamphetamine made inroads among many blue-collar people 
     because it did not carry the stigma of being a hard drug, the 
     authorities said.
       ``Crack has the stigma of being an inner-city drug, and 
     powder cocaine is thought to be for affluent people,'' said 
     Mike Balmer, the chief deputy sheriff in Jasper County. ``But 
     speed was a working-class drug. It's what people used to get 
     them through a shift at the factory or keep up on a 
     construction site.''
       Indeed, the use of methamphetamine goes back many years, 
     perhaps to the 20' or 30's. But today's form is farm more 
     powerful, and deadly.
       Years ago, the authorities said, a typical street does of 
     methamphetamine consisted of perhaps 20 percent of ephedrine, 
     the ingredient that delivers the kick. New methods that

[[Page S1867]]

     emerged in the late 1980's and early 90's often using a 
     synthetic psuedoephedrine, have yielded a much more potent 
     substance. Now the drug contains over 90 percent of the 
     active ingredient.
       Even before the big influx of methamphetamine, the use of 
     stimulants was a problem in Iowa. A public health survey in 
     1993 found that the use of stimulants like amphetamines among 
     Iowans was twice the national average, a finding that caused 
     some scholars to wonder if an intense Midwestern work ethic 
     was mainly to blame.
       The latest statistics show that more than 35 percent of the 
     people going to Iowa prisons last year reported using 
     methamphetamine. And 90 percent of the people being committed 
     to the mental health facilities in Polk County have used 
     methamphetamine.
       In some cases, the psychotic behavior provoked by the drug 
     becomes permanent. The drug also causes body sores, which are 
     worsened by the incessant scratching by users who feel like 
     bugs are crawling over their bodies.
       To fight the drug, Iowa has begun a radio and television 
     advertising campaign to warn people of the dangers. A new 
     prosecutor has been added to the United States Attorney's 
     office in Des Moines, just to concentrate on drugs. At least 
     five counties in Iowa have hired extra prosecutors to deal 
     with the rising tide of methamphetamine cases.
       ``They haven't seen much of this in the East Coast,'' said 
     Tom Murtha, the director of the First Step-Mercy Franklin 
     Center, an alcohol and drug treatment center. ``But it's 
     coming.''

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, what America is facing today is nothing 
short of an epidemic. Meth is cheap and easily manufactured from 
commonly available chemicals. Today, with Senator Feinstein, we are 
striking at the root of the problem: chemical suppliers who sell 
chemicals to illegal meth labs. The harder it is for criminal chemists 
to get the raw material to make meth, the more difficult it will be to 
produce. This in turn will make it more expensive. And this will reduce 
consumption. And that will help keep our kids alive a little longer.
  With the rapid increase of meth use among young people, unless we act 
quickly--and decisively--to pass this bill, I fear for an entire 
generation of Americans. Mr. President, in the 1980's, we almost lost a 
generation to crack and power cocaine. Let's not get that close to the 
edge again.
                                 ______