Lawmakers are considering legislation that would place stricter limits on how much ephedrine and pseudoephedrine is bought and sold in the state. Those drugs are two of the key ingredients used in methamphetamine production.
Under current law, people are only allowed to buy up to 7.2 grams of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine per month. Legislation proposed by Senator Carlin Yoder (R-Middlebury) would also cap sales at 72 grams per year – essentially allowing Hoosiers to buy 10 months worth of the drugs in a single year.
Indiana State Police sergeant Niki Crawford says setting a yearly cap of 72 grams is only a first step.
“Our concerns are that there is another bill on the House side that lowers it to 28.8. 72 grams is quite a bit and our fear would be that it would not make the type of impact that we know Senator Yoder would want it to make.”
Yoder says he’s flexible when it comes to setting the cap.
“You know, I’m not sure there’s a magic number out there that’s the right number but if we need to tweak that a little, I’m willing to do that. I think the bill in the House is a little extreme on their levels at four months so I don’t think we’ll come anywhere close to that.”
A Senate committee postponed a vote on the bill Tuesday to allow Yoder to make further changes.
