House and Senate lawmakers are working out a few remaining issues with a bill aimed at curbing Indiana's meth production. The biggest sticking point is how much pseudoephedrine Hoosiers can buy without a prescription.
Under the bill, patients of record at a pharmacy can buy the cold medicine pseudoephedrine without a prescription. Non-patients of record are more restricted – they can only buy a limited amount of pseudoephedrine drugs. Otherwise, they have to get a prescription. But lawmakers are debating just what that limited amount should be.
The bill sets the limit at 720 milligrams a day – five times less than current law. And Rep. Ben Smaltz, R-Auburn, one of the bill's authors, says he doesn't want to see that changed.
"What we would be doing if we change that is simply putting in code what the existing situation is," Smaltz says. "It doesn't do anything, so we have to be careful that."
The Senate author of the bill, Rep. Randy Head, R-Logansport, stresses that non-patients of record have no purchasing limits on drugs with a very small amount of pseudoephedrine in them – so-called "meth-resistant" drugs.
Both lawmakers say they think a deal will be reached before the session ends next week.