Next Steps: MA and PA Methamphetamine Labs

NEXT STEPS: MA AND PA METHAMPHETAMINE LABS

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I rise today after hearing several reports of the continued problem of methamphetamine production in rural America. Law enforcement must dedicate more and more resources to the small, "ma and pa" meth labs. These small labs pose a threat not only because of the drugs they produce, but also the serious health and environmental risk caused by the production process.

In years past, methamphetamine production was controlled by skilled chemists or well-educated individuals who were paid significant amounts of money to manufacture the narcotic. Methamphetamine production at times took an entire day to produce. Today, with modern technology and the help of information readily available over the Internet, methamphetamine production can be accomplished within a very few hours. Production no longer takes a highly skilled individual or chemist. Recipes for producing meth can be downloaded off the Internet, complete with step-by-step instructions anyone can follow. These recipes use products available at any number of local retail outlets as ingredients, first reducing them to the needed chemical components and then recombining them to produce meth.

Small cooks, often producing only enough meth for themselves and a few friends, dominate the concerns of rural law enforcement organizations. Several of the narcotics task forces in Iowa report that while they believe over 80 percent of the meth within their jurisdiction comes from outside the State, they spend 80 percent of their time and resources on these small cooks. If we are going to get ahead of this problem, we must change this ratio.

Several years ago we took some important steps in limiting access to many of the precursors needed for meth production. These were good steps, and have proven somewhat effective. But more needs to be done.

Officers from the Southeast Iowa Task Force will tell you stories of suspects they have followed all over the county, stopping at each convenience store, supermarket, and drug store they passed to pick up as much cold medicine as they could. Not because they were sick, but because they needed the ephedrine in these drugs to cook meth. Sometimes it is purchased, but just as often it is stolen. These suspects were followed back to apartments, farm houses, motel rooms, or even deserted areas of gravel roads where the cold medicines were combined with other chemicals like starter flud, anhydrous ammonia, and drain cleaner solvents for a "cook" of methamphetamine. This is all too common anyplace we find meth being cooked by amateurs using recipes off the Internet.

There are several different recipes for cooking meth. In rural areas, many of the small cooks use a receipt calling for anhydrous ammonia, which is a fertilizer readily available wherever farming occurs. Other recipes call for the use of red phosphorous, the common ingredient in emergency road flares. But all of these recipes need some form of ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, a common ingredient in cold medicine.

If we make it more difficult for meth cooks to acquire ephedrine, then it will be more difficult for them to manufacture this poison. Several proposals have been put forth by the DEA and others which would help control access to ephedrine products. Many of these have merit, and I hope we will continue to pursue these proposals.

One method that could be very effective would be to put products containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine behind the counter, such as is currently do with cigarettes. Other proposals would increase the penalties for possession of excessive amounts of precursor chemicals for meth. Some quarters have suggested collecting names or even social security numbers for everyone who purchases products containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. Clearly, each of these proposed solutions brings its own set of challenges.

But new steps need to be taken. Spending 80 percent of the time on 20 percent of the problem is not a way to get ahead. Increasing the difficulty of getting the products needed to do a small "cook" of meth decreases the likelihood these "cooks" will take place at all. While none of these proposals will stop all of the ma and pa meth operations, the status quo is not acceptable. Our cops are being overwhelmed, and our kids are dying—we cannot remain silent.