Robbins Joins Senators, Attorney General to Unveil Pennsylvania Combat Meth Initiative

Harrisburg – Taking aim at the production of the deadly drug methamphetamine, Senator Bob Robbins (R-50) joined a group of Senators and Attorney General Tom Corbett today to announce a comprehensive legislative package to combat a growing problem in Pennsylvania.

The seven bills, known as the "Pennsylvania Combat Meth Initiative," will make it more difficult to obtain the ingredients necessary to make methamphetamine, add new protections for children, and clean up the environmental damage caused by meth labs.

Robbins noted that meth production is a serious problem in rural areas of the state, but its popularity is spreading because most of the ingredients used to make it can be purchased in local stores. The drug is "cooked" in home-made labs and is highly addictive and deadly.

One of Robbins' bills, Senate Bill 1121, places Pennsylvania's "Meth Watch" Program into law. This is a cooperative program between the Attorney General's Office and retailers to educate and provide warnings regarding methamphetamine, and the common ingredients used to make it.

"It will take cooperation and education to turn the tide," Robbins said. "Just as the drug robs users of their health, the presence of meth in a community robs the community of its health."

"While the Attorney General's Office continues to successfully investigate and prosecute meth dealers and dismantle clandestine meth labs, we need to make it more difficult to manufacture meth, which in many parts of Pennsylvania is a homemade drug," Corbett said. "This comprehensive legislative package and Meth Watch will help us accomplish this goal by making it more difficult for meth producers to obtain the vital ingredients they need to manufacture meth."

In addition to the Meth Watch bill, Senator Robbins is sponsoring Senate Bill 1120, which would make it a misdemeanor for a parent or guardian to knowingly operate a methamphetamine laboratory in the vicinity of a child.

Other bills in the Pennsylvania Combat Meth Initiative would:

Limit the sale of pseudoephedrine, a common ingredient in many over-the-counter cold medicines. The bill, which must be amended to make it consistent with federal law, also makes it an offense to knowingly possess ephedrine with the intent to unlawfully manufacture methamphetamine.
Make it a specific violation of the Controlled Substance Act to possess an ephedrine-related substance with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine.
Add the definition of "precursor substance" to the Controlled Substance Act. This would allow the Secretary of Health to add chemicals to the current list of controlled substances by regulation if they are found to be used in the production of drugs.
Make it a criminal offense to operate a meth lab and impose additional penalties for operating a lab near a school or day care center.
Allow the court to assess costs on a defendant convicted of an offense involving a meth lab and assess environmental clean-up costs against the defendant.

"This initiative is designed to balance the need to reduce access to one of their most important ingredients for making meth with the need for individuals to use pseudoephedrine legally to treat cold symptoms," Robbins said.

The Senator noted that more than 12 million people in the United States have used meth at least once. It's estimated that more women now use meth than cocaine. Users suffer permanent damage as brain cells are left with altered nerve endings that do not re-grow. Damage to the brain puts users at higher risk of strokes, even years after quitting meth.

"The devastating effects of this drug and the ease in which it is made are hard to comprehend," said Robbins. "I urge members of the media to attend one of the Attorney General's informational workshops on methamphetamine. They'll walk away with a better understanding that we really are in the middle of a community crisis."

CONTACT:

Nate Silcox
(717) 787-1322