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Bill Targets Medicines Bought for Meth Production

WBOC.com, August 27, 2013

DOVER, Del.- Delaware Gov. Jack Markell on Tuesday signed into law a bill that tightens the laws on purchasing products that can be used to produce methamphetamine. This law mandates that all people must enter their name into a national registry in order to buy medicines with pseudoephedrine, including Sudafed and Benadryl.

Twenty-five states already approved of this measure, which is meant to crack down on the production of meth. Meth has been on the rise in Delaware, and in Sussex County it has more than doubled in the last decade, according to an undercover police officer. These medicines are used as an ingredient for Meth when it is crushed into a powder. The law will kick in at the start of the new year.

Marie Dordy, of Laurel, was in line at a Walgreens pharmacy when she heard about the new policy. She said that she buys Sudafed once a month for allergies. She said it will certainly be an inconvenience to wait in line longer, but that it's worth it in order to fight the spread of drugs.

"I understand why they're trying to control it because there are so many people that are using it for things that they shouldn't be using it," she said. "And if they can stop one child from getting something that they shouldn't, then I guess we'll be inconvenienced and stand in line."

The registry is meant to prevent a technique called "smurfing," by which a person makes multiple purchases at many stories in order to get an illegally high quantity of Pseudoephedrine. Josh Viau of Virginia said that he disapproves of the change.

"They can't just infer that you're gonna use it for a bad thing such as the drug," he said. "That's wrong if they keep track. They need to get out of our business. If we want medicine, we should be able to have medicine.

Shona Hopkins from Seaford said that it shouldn't make a difference for people who are using the drug responsibly, and so she didn't mind the change.

"I know I'm not making anything so it doesn't really matter to me," she said. "Anytime they're trying to track it - I don't really mind because I'm not doing anything illegal."