New anti-meth bill will be introduced

WASHINGTON – On a bitterly cold February morning, a half dozen lobbyists filed into Sen. Jim Talent’s conference room for a tense, 90-minute meeting with one of the Missouri lawmaker’s top aides.

The lobbyists represented an array of business interests, from deep-pocketed drug companies to retail giants such as Wal-Mart and Target to the nation’s convenience store industry. They were there to talk about a bill Talent, R-Mo., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D- Calif., introduced three weeks earlier proposing new curbs on sales of cold medicines containing a key ingredient used to make methamphetamine.

The lobbyists planned a full-court press to undo the bill’s core proposal: putting cold medicines such as Sudafed and Benadryl behind the pharmacy counter, where consumers would have to sign a log and show an ID before buying them.

A key test of the industry’s lobbying strength will come this week, when Talent and Feinstein plan to unveil a new version of their bill. Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., is working with Talent and industry groups to revise a similar measure he has in the House.

The legislation would make it harder to buy products containing pseudoephedrine, which can do wonders for a stuffy nose but which is also a key ingredient in the deadly and highly addictive narcotic known as meth.

For more than a decade, the makers of cold and flu remedies, and their allies in the retail industry, have had stunning success in staving off or watering down proposals to tightly regulate pseudoephedrine. And meth makers have exploited the resulting loopholes.

Despite the lobbying firepower on display at that February meeting, this year might be different. Even as Talent and other lawmakers are working closely with the industry to address some of its concerns, the once-fierce opposition to strict limits on the drug seems to be unraveling.

Some groups have softened their opposition, while others have stepped back from the legislative fray or are even supporting new limits.

“They saw what the lay of the land was, and not just in our offices but in state legislatures around the country and with the public,” Talent said. “There are parts of the industry that have said, ‘This is overdue.’ “

Thirteen states, including Missouri, have passed laws restricting sale of pseudoephedrine products and 30 others are considering such a move.

In Washington, meanwhile, Talent, Feinstein, Blunt and their aides have continued to meet with industry lobbyists.