[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 150 (Thursday, October 23, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13146-S13147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Kohl, Mr. 
        Biden, Mr. Kyl, and Mr. Harkin):
  S. 1784. A bill to eliminate the safe-harbor exception for certain 
packaged pseudoephedrine products used in the manufacture of 
methamphetamine; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the 
``Methamphetamine Blister Pack Loophole Elimination Act of 2003,'' 
along with my colleagues Senators Grassley, Kohl, Biden, Kyl and 
Harkin.
  This is a simple bill, and directly follows recommendations made by 
the United States Drug Enforcement Administration in a 2002 study 
requested by Congress.
  All this legislation does is make it harder for meth dealers to get 
the precursor pseudoephedrine products necessary to make this illegal 
drug.
  Making it harder for meth dealers to make and obtain their drugs is 
something beneficial not just to California, but to the entire Nation.
  Once predominantly found in the American Southwest, methamphetamine's 
presence now stretches from coast to coast.
  I'm sorry to say that my home State of California has been referred 
to as the ``Colombia of meth production.'' In fact, our State is known 
as the ``source country'' for the drug, producing roughly 80 percent of 
the Nation's methamphetamine supply.
  According to the DEA, 1,847 clandestine meth labs were found in 
California in 2001 alone.
  In each of these meth labs across the country, those who make 
methamphetamine combine a number of precursor drugs, from red 
phosphorus, which is difficult to obtain, highly flammable and toxic, 
to pseudoephedrine, which can be found in common cold medicine in every 
supermarket, pharmacy, and convenience store in America.
  Recognizing the easy availability of pseudoephedrine, Congress has 
acted several times to make it more difficult for meth dealers to 
purchase it in bulk.
  First, we placed a 24-gram limit, which represented almost 1000 
pills. Then, just a few years ago, we reduced this threshold to just 9 
grams--still some 366 30-milligram pills. Anyone buying more than this 
amount of pseudoephedrine at one time would be required to give his or 
her name and address.
  As it turns out, this reporting requirement is considered too 
burdensome by most retail stores, so instead of keeping track of 
purchasers, most retailers simply limit single transaction sales of 
pseudoephedrine pills to less than 9 grams. This is an even more 
beneficial result than the reporting requirements. Such limits, which 
now often go as low as three or even two packages of cold medicine, 
make it much harder for meth manufacturers to get this precursor drug. 
Instead of simply going to the local WalMart or Costco and clearing the 
shelves of thousands of packages at once, they must now buy just a few 
packages at a time.
  But through all of this, there is one gaping loophole in the law, 
that allows any of this product packaged in so-called ``blister-packs'' 
to avoid these reporting requirements. Only loose pills in bottles face 
the 9-gram restrictions in the law.
  Blister packs are the most common form of packaging for cold 
medicine, as anyone who goes grocery shopping knows. Most people who 
buy pseudoephedrine will find it in blister packs, as will most meth 
dealers. As a result, the 9-gram limit in the law has become fairly 
useless--we limited the sales of pills, so meth dealers simply migrated 
to blister packs.
  This loophole in the law exists because of previous doubts, by some, 
that meth dealers would bother to use blister-packed products. These 
foil and plastic containers hold each pill individually, and as a 
result it is harder to gather the thousands of pills necessary to 
manufacture methamphetamine in bulk.
  Those of us from California have known for some time that blister 
packs are a problem, because California's Bureau of Narcotic 
Enforcement has been finding blister packs at meth lab sites for years.
  But to answer the doubts of those not lucky enough to come from my 
home state, we authorized DEA to do a study into this issue in 1999.
  Well, that study is back, and guess what--DEA has given us clear, 
incontrovertible evidence that these blister packs are making up an 
increasing percentage of the pseudoephedrine found at lab sites.
  In some instances, meth manufacturers use sophisticated, industrial 
``deblistering'' machines to quickly extract pills from blister packs.
  In others, I have been told, children are employed to sit in the meth 
lab and pop out thousands of pills, by hand, into nearby buckets.
  According to the report we requested from the DEA, which was released 
in March of 2002, blister packaged pseudoephedrine products seized at 
clandestine methamphetamine laboratories and other locations, such as 
dumpsites, have involved seizures of over a million tablets.
  The seizure of so many blister packaged pseudoephedrine products 
shows convincingly that blister packaging is not a deterrent to 
ordinary, over-the-counter pseudoephedrine use in clandestine 
methamphetamine laboratories.
  So clearly, what we argued in 1999, and in 1996, is true. Meth 
manufacturers are using blister packs, and something must be done to 
stop them as best we can.
  In order to address this problem, DEA recommended in its report that 
the blister pack loophole be closed, and that the current retail sales 
limit of 9 grams for bottled pseudoephedrine be extended to blister 
packed products as well.
  And that, is all that this bill would do.
  According to DEA, this is the single best thing we can do to help 
them in the fight against methamphetamine.
  This legislation will clear up confusion among retailers who may find 
it hard to train employees to limit the sales of certain cold medicine 
if sold in bottles, but not the same medicine in other packaging.
  This legislation will help DEA enforce the retail sales thresholds by 
making it harder for sellers to claim ignorance or confusion about the 
law.
  This legislation might make it less likely that meth dealers will 
employ young children to pop pills out of the blister packs, all within 
harms reach in meth labs around the country.
  This legislation will not negatively impact the ability of 
pharmaceutical manufacturers to make legitimate profits.
  This legislation will not be a burden on consumers, because the 9 
gram limit still represents 366 pills--30 packages of 12 pills, or 15 
packages of 24 pills, two of the most common amounts.
  It is hard for me to imagine that an average person--or even a large 
family--needs to buy more than 366 cold pills at one time. In fact, 
many stores throughout the country have already voluntarily limited 
pseudoephedrine sales to just a few packages at a time, and there has 
been little outcry from consumers unable to purchase more.
  This bill is not a panacea for the meth problem in the United 
States--far from it. I have been working on various parts of the meth 
problem for many years, and I know that this must be a multi-faceted 
approach--tougher penalties, money for training, enforcement and clean-
up, restrictions on precursor chemicals, tools for prosecutors, and so 
on.
  But to fail to enact this legislation is to make it far easier for 
meth dealers to continue to easily ply their trade.
  I urge my colleagues to look at this bill, join us in supporting it, 
and help us to pass it as soon as possible to assist the DEA in the 
very uphill battle

[[Page S13147]]

against the illegal and pervasive manufacture and sale of 
methamphetamine.
  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. 1784

       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 2003''.

     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.

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senator Feinstein 
as a cosponsor of the Methamphetamine Blister Pack Loophool Elimination 
Act of 2003. This legislation will make it harder for meth cooks to get 
an essential ingredient needed to manufacture methamphetamine. 
Methamphetamine is a dangerous narcotic and is a serious challenge 
facing our country. The manufacture, distribution, and use of 
methamphetamine has a lasting and devastating personal effect on our 
Nation's families, communities, and our environment.
  According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, methamphetamine is 
a highly addictive stimulant drug that strongly activates certain 
systems in the brain by releasing high levels of the neurotransmitter 
dopamine. Some of the short-term effects of using methamphetamine 
include: an accelerated heartbeat, elevated blood pressure, 
irritability, extreme nervousness, confusion, insomnia, aggression, 
tremors, convulsions, and hyperthermia, which can potentially result in 
death.
  In addition to the effects on the central nervous system and the 
cardiovascular system, the prolonged use of methamphetamine also has 
many psychological effects. Some of the symptoms resemble those of 
schizophrenia and are characterized by anger, panic, paranoia, auditory 
and visual hallucinations, and repetitive behavior patterns.
  Other long-term effects can result in kidney and lung disorders, 
brain damage, liver damage, blood clots, a deficient immune system and 
chronic depression.
  The threat of methamphetamine is different than that of most other 
illegal drugs as it can be easily manufactured from readily available 
chemicals and substances. The relative ease of manufacturing and its 
highly addictive potential has caused methamphetamine use to 
drastically increase throughout the nation. According to the 2002 
National Survey on Drug Abuse and Health 5.3 percent of the U.S. 
population--over 12 million people--reported trying methamphetamine at 
least once in their lifetime.
  This is an alarming figure. Given the serious ramifications 
surrounding the use of methamphetamine, we need to be vigilant, making 
sure that we are doing all that we can to curb this dangerous 
statistic.
  This bill makes specific clarifications to the Comprehensive 
Methamphetamine Act of 1996. While current law establishes a retail 
sales limit of 9 grams for most pseudoephedrine products, which is one 
of the basic precursor chemicals used in the manufacturing of 
methamphetamine, there is no such limit on the sale of ``blister-
packed'' pseudoephedrine products.
  The bill we are introducing today follows the recommendation of the 
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that retail distribution of 
pseudoephedrine tablets in blister packages should not be exempt from 
the 9-gram retail sales limit. This will make it more difficult for 
methamphetamine producers to obtain large quantities of the precursor 
chemical pseudoephedrine.
  As Senator Feinstein well knows, the two largest means of acquiring 
precursor chemicals for methamphetamine in California are by mail order 
and retail sales. This acquisition is made easier because the meth 
cooks are able to exploit the blister pack exemption provision in the 
current law. Removing this exemption will not halt meth production but 
it will make it more difficult for meth cooks to collect the key 
ingredients they need.
  This is not the only answer to this problem, but it is an important 
step. Law enforcement cannot fix the problem alone. Schools can't do it 
alone. The Federal Government can't do it alone. It is important that 
we each unite and lead local anti-drug initiatives in our respective 
neighborhoods and communities. I encourage my colleagues to join us in 
supporting these important reforms. We cannot let this attack on our 
Nation's citizens go unchecked.
                                 ______