New anti-meth law strikes proper balance
7.17.16–Grant Monahan, The Journal Gazette
This time of year, allergies are in full effect, and both familiar and new faces are picking up decongestants that effectively relieve their symptoms. These trusted medicines are unfortunately also used by some criminals to make meth. The good news is that the legislature recently passed legislation that will block known meth offenders from purchasing cold and allergy medicines that contain pseudoephedrine.
As president of the Indiana Retail Council, which represents drug stores and pharmacies that sell these effective products, I have had the opportunity to see Indiana pharmacists work with local law enforcement for years through a system called the National Precursor Log Exchange. This system allows pharmacists to monitor purchases of pseudoephedrine for illegal activity, and it immediately rejects any sale to someone who has reached their daily, monthly or yearly legal purchase limit. The new law will also prevent previous meth offenders from purchasing any cold and allergy medications with pseudoephedrine.
For our members, the addition of the registry of meth offenders to the existing NPLEx e-tracking system was a no-brainer. But this was part of a contentious debate during the 2016 legislative session
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