Methamphetamine — or meth — is an all-too-familiar illegal drug that is addictive, dangerous and relatively easy to manufacture. Meth has become a plague and a scourge on contemporary society. “Plague” and “scourge” often are used improperly to overdramatize events, but in the case of the manufacture and use of meth, the words are correct.
Meth is a major challenge to law enforcement. There is no easy corrective, but proposed legislation could give Tennessee’s law enforcement agencies an effective tool in their battle against the drug.
The key to slowing meth production is to somehow reduce the availability of pseudoephedrine, a substance with a dual personality, so to speak. Pseudoephedrine is a safe and effective ingredient in many of the leading brands of cold and allergy medicines available without a prescription. It also can be used to illegally make metamphetamine.
What’s needed, then, is a way to preserve access to widely used over-the-counter medications such as some forms of Advil, Alleve and Tylenol and Sudafed, Zyrtec-D and Triaminic-D, while making it difficult or impossible for those who need pseudoephedrine to manufacture meth to obtain it. Legislation supported by the Consumer Healthcare Products Association — already adopted in several states — creates a system that appears to perform that service. It utilizes an electronic data base that quickly provides pharmacists and store clerks with a sale or no-sale recommendation based on an individual’s purchase history after applying applicable local, state and federal laws.
In Tennessee and other states where state-of-the-art monitoring systems are not mandated or in use, an individual can go from drug store to drug store and purchase pseudoephedrine products at each, amassing enough product to manufacture meth. Laws that mandate that the products be kept behind the counter have proved ineffective at curbing sales.