Left in the Heartland

(Note: the post below has been edited to remove a minor "he said/ she said" spat about Strom's entry).

Over at Our House, the personal blog kept by David Strom and Margaret Martin, Strom has suggested that the RPM fired Eibensteiner to punish Pawlenty for supposedly playing nice with the Senate Democrats. He writes, in part:

I genuinely hope that Governor Pawlenty is getting ready to get serious with the Senate, and quit trying to win them over. As Machiavelli said, it is better to be feared than loved.

The political fallout from Pawlenty's pandering to the Senate continues. Americans for Tax Reform is now running TV ads attacking the cigarette tax increase. The ad can be viewed here. Eibensteiner can certainly be viewed as at least partly a victim of Tim's faltering, and many Republicans in the House are worried that they may be next. Any chance of taking the State Senate appears to be fading, although it is way too early to be sure of anything. But President Pawlenty is a rapidly receding hope unless Tim changes paths and tacks right soon.

I know the Governor may be afraid to appear to backtrack if he takes the cigarette tax and the new revenue off the table, but the only way to win this battle is to play serious hardball--which they haven't done at all this session. As long as all the political price to be paid is on the Republican side, the Democrats will continue to play this game.

The new revenue should come off the table, along with any talk of tax increases. Then the Governor needs to put Democrat constituencies at real risk in this battle--right now only Republicans seem to be paying any price.

The Governor needs to remember the formula for his success: when his interests are aligned with the Republican Party and the Conservative movement, he won. He has now chosen to diverge from both of his allies, asking them to follow him down a path they cannot possible go down (higher taxes, Northstar, Stadium, minimum wage, no sudafed in the stores, ethanol, etc.). He needs to tack right, take the argument out of the Capitol to the people, and beat the Democrats in the field of public opinion.

As long as he tries to negotiate by giving the Democrats more of what they want, they will continue to demand ever higher prices for a settlement.

Cold tablets are still available in Minnesota, but their sale has been restricted to help combat the state's exploding meth lab problem. And by gum, some conservatives don't like those restrictions, but boy, it's pretty hard to make a simple talking point out of what actually got passed.

Is this new law--or the proposed ban of Sudafed--a concession to the Senate?

Hmmm.

It was pointed out in the comments section that banning sudafed was a sudden Republican House floor action--specifically, an amendment by fiscal conservative Mike Charron (R-Woodbury) to Jeff Johnson's meth bill--rather than a Pawlenty-led proposal aimed at appeasing the Senate.

The amendment passed overwhelmingly in the Republican controlled House, but was never part of Senate anti-meth measures. The provision was dropped in conference committee and the resulting crime bill was signed into law by Governor Pawlenty.

I grew really curious why the mouthful "no sudafed in stores" was included in a laundry list of more simple items that would illustrate how Pawlenty is taking Republicans and conservatives down a "path where they cannot possibly go" in order to appease the Senate--i.e., the Democrats.

Why, it sure do look like one of those gosh-derned nanny state things the Democrats are always imposin' on the law-abiding, hard-working people of Minnesota.

Was Pawlenty a leader in proposing this idea among Republicans in order to pander to the commies in the Senate? Strom's main post implies that the idea is Democratic, but he labels it a "dumb idea" in a backtrack in the comments section.

If this is a "dumb idea" (Strom's words) or a "feel good, do nothing" measure (Martin's take), let's discover whose dumb, feel-good, do-nothing idea it is.

Let's name them by name, rather than framing it as a "Republicans/conservatives smart, ideas we don't like are dumb or feel-good do-nothing" debate.

So, step with me into the way back machine known as Nexis and let's see what comes up.

As far as I can tell, restricting access to cold tablets as legislative relief for the serious problem of meth labs was introduced into the mix by Fairmont legislators Julie Rosen and Bob Gunther (chief sponsor in the House was Republican Doug Fuller). They and other lawmakers were educated about the idea by a Martin County law enforcement officer, who had done extensive research on the problem.

The restrictions have never been offered in isolation, but as part of a multi-pronged approach to dealing with the booming meth problem in Minnesota. The crime bill that the legislature crafted in the regular session includes measure to increase penalties, promote prevention education and treatment, and to restrict the supply of ingredients such as cold tables and anhydrous ammonia, an agricultural chemical.

We learn about the proposal first in November, 2003:

Bill would control sale of meth component
BY PATRICK SWEENEY; Pioneer Press

Druggists and convenience-store clerks would have to keep a close eye on common cold remedies that are a key component of homemade methamphetamine, under legislation proposed Friday by Minnesota Republican lawmakers.

The bill also would set a mandatory minimum two-year prison sentence for anyone convicted of possessing chemicals with the intent of brewing them into the illegal drug.

State Sen. Julie Rosen, Rep. Bob Gunther, both Fairmont Republicans, and top state law enforcement officials held a news conference Friday to announce plans for the anti-methamphetamine legislation.

Earlier in the week, Democratic legislators held their own news conference to tout their anti-meth bills. Those bills would allow people who manufacture methamphetamines in the presence of children to be prosecuted for child endangerment and permit people convicted of operating methamphetamine labs to be forced to pay for cleaning up toxic wastes from their labs.

The interest by lawmakers in toughening methamphetamine laws reflects an upsurge in use of the illegal drug in Minnesota, and especially an increase in the number of people manufacturing the drug in homemade labs in homes, motels and sometimes state park campsites.

In 1995, police seized 20 illegal drug labs in Minnesota. Last year, 400 such labs were seized, according to the Minnesota Health Department.

Up to 90 percent of the methamphetamine used in Minnesota is imported by drug rings from California and Mexico, according to police. But the small percentage of the drug produced here in homemade labs creates disproportionate problems because of the wastes and the potential danger to the children of people manufacturing the drug in their homes.

Two of the most common components of homemade methamphetamine are pseudoephedrine, a common cold remedy, and anhydrous ammonia, a farm fertilizer. The Republicans' proposed legislation would tighten current restrictions on improperly using the anhydrous ammonia and impose major new restrictions on the retail sale of pseudoephedrine.

The bill would prohibit the sale of the cold remedy to anyone under 18. It also would require merchants to store pseudoephedrine near a cash register where a clerk could see it at all times, keep it in a locked display case or put anti-theft alarms on packages of the drug. (Pioneer Press, November 15, 2003)

More coverage from the Strib:

New law sought to battle meth; A bill to be introduced in the 2004 Legislature would increase the penalties and restrict supplies for making methamphetamines.

Conrad deFiebre; Staff Writer

With the addictive stimulant methaphetamine now the overwhelming focus of drug investigations in Minnesota, legislators and law enforcement officials called Friday for a wide-ranging new law to counter a growing epidemic that they said threatens children, public health and the environment.

"Meth is already a serious problem, and now this scourge has hit the Twin Cities," Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont, said at a State Capitol news conference. "We are going to make it a lot harder for anyone to get their hands on the products and equipment necessary to make this dangerous drug."

Rosen's bill would increase criminal penalties, restrict sales of meth ingredients, protect children of meth manufacturers, clean up toxic meth lab sites and educate the public about the drug's dangers. Her announcement came four days after DFL legislators renewed their push for a similar bill that passed the DFL-led Senate this year but not the GOP-controlled House. Rosen said she hopes for a bipartisan effort next year.

She said police in her southern Minnesota district recently alerted her to a surge in thefts of pseudoephedrine, a legal sinusitis medicine used to make meth, after Iowa put new controls on sales and storage of such ingredients. In the last decade, police raids on clandestine meth labs in Minnesota have increased 20-fold, and the drug's share of narcotics cases in the state has gone from 10 percent to 90 percent, officials said.

Under Rosen's bill, sales of pseudoephedrine to adults would be limited and would be barred for minors, and merchants would have to guard supplies of the drug in locked cabinets, within sight of clerks, behind sales counters or with antitheft product tags. In addition, the maximum penalty for possession of ingredients with intent to manufacture meth would increase from three years in prison to 15 years.

Abuse of methampetamine causes severe neurological, organ and psychological damage, health officials say. About a third of meth labs are discovered when they catch fire or explode, and the rest pose serious environmental risks for future inhabitants without cleanup efforts that can cost thousands of dollars.

Although meth is relatively simple to produce with readily available chemicals, most of the drug found in Minnesota still is smuggled in from Mexico and California, said Tim O'Malley, deputy superintendent of the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Public Safety Commissioner Rich Stanek called Rosen's bill "the kind of comprehensive solution we desperately need."

The DFL bill could make adults who cook meth around children subject to child-endangerment charges. (Star Tribune November 15, 2003)

Coverage continued in early 2004 in the Pioneer Press:

February 22, 2004 Sunday
BIRTH OF A BILL
BY AMY BECKER; Pioneer Press

Years of frustration over meth labs coalesced on a fall day in 2002 for narcotics investigator Ginger Peterson.

She and other officers were searching a meth lab house in Mapleton, Minn., where preschoolers were living.

Peterson saw an empty bathtub rimmed with a collection of children's toys and stained by hazardous meth waste dumped down the drain. She saw lice crawling on the children. And she saw a woman who was nine months pregnant who admitted to smoking meth and whose baby would be born highly addicted to the drug.

"I was stunned and horrified," said Peterson, who works for the Martin County sheriff's office and the Minnesota River Valley Drug Task Force and who declined to be photographed. "It was a turning point for me to realize we have to do something about this. Who is going to speak for the kids?"

That refrain launched Peterson, 27 and a former Marine, on a crusade that is still under way: Legislation she helped create is pending before state lawmakers. It includes increased protections for children and vulnerable adults exposed to the drug and toughens rules involving sale and distribution of the drug's ingredients.

Already her efforts have garnered kudos from peers.

Paul Stevens, special agent with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and co-director of the Midwest Governors Conference on Methamphetamine, said of Peterson's work: "This thing she's doing is probably the most important thing she might do in her career."

BIRTH OF A BILL

The children from that lab lingered in Peterson's mind. When she saw a news story last April about anti-meth legislation in Missouri, it made her wonder what could be done in Minnesota.

Missouri investigators found 2,733 labs in fiscal year 2002, compared with 248 labs in 1996. Minnesota is only a few years behind Missouri in the number of meth labs, Peterson said. As opposed to the factory-style labs in the Southwest and West, Minnesota's labs tend to be small-scale enterprises, many in homes. More than 30 percent of the state's labs also house children.

It was too much.

"I am so fed up dealing with meth," said Peterson, who spends 90 percent of her workday fighting the drug. "I tell my husband all the time, 'I hate meth.' "

Peterson felt deeply that she had to take action, perhaps as a result of a lesson she learned in the Marine Corps. Her enlistment didn't turn out the way she planned because a leg injury prevented her from becoming a military police officer. But it did turn her from a party-loving 18-year-old into a bona fide overachiever who finished as valedictorian of her police academy class and was fast-tracked into narcotics.

"The military taught me if you're going to do something, do it well," Peterson said. It also taught her to rely on herself to get things done.

So she marched into Sheriff Brad Gerhardt's office last April and waited while he read the clipping about Missouri legislation.

"Why don't we be proactive?" she suggested. Gerhardt told her to research meth legislation and put something together.

In between her "regular dope work," Peterson said, she visited 50 states on the Internet, culling meth legislation. She looked over the laws, plucked the best wording and recapped it for the sheriff, the Fairmont, Minn., police chief and local lawmakers.

"We were all blown away. Ginger had so much data," Gerhardt said.

EVERYONE HAS A STAKE

Once local legislators and sheriffs saw Peterson's research, they knew more people would need to be involved.

Methamphetamine doesn't just addict people, making them paranoid and endangering their children. It pollutes homes, wells, sewers, soils, lakes, cars and hotels. Its unusually broad scope means it touches on interests as diverse as the Minnesota Agriculture Department and children's services. Everybody has a stake in meth, Peterson said.

She started calling people and urged them to call others.

Their first meeting took place last September, in the back room of an Albert Lea, Minn., restaurant. The tables were pushed into a U curve. From her vantage point near one end, Peterson watched as lawmakers, prosecutors, a judge, several sheriffs, officials from public health, pollution control and others sat down to hammer out a bill.

She was amazed.

"I was sitting there in awe of all the people in the room," she said. "Just the intelligence in that room dedicated to one cause."

Each subsequent meeting had 15 to 25 people who represented a broad cross-section of public life.

"It's as big a grassroots effort as I've ever seen," said Gerhardt, the son of a former state representative. Experts agree it will take that kind of collaboration to stem the spread of methamphetamine in Minnesota.

The bill was gaining steam at the Legislature, Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont, said this past week, despite the fact it would initially cost $1.9 million.

The effort is only a start, but they'll keep going, Gerhardt said. "We're just not going to throw our hands up and quit."

A bill spearheaded by Sen. Julie Rosen and Rep. Bob Gunther, both Fairmont Republicans, along with chief author Rep. Doug Fuller, R-Bemidji, is pending at the Capitol. It would:

*Limit sale of meth precursor chemicals such as pseudoephedrine (found in common cold medicines) and tighten display of cold medicines to discourage theft. Such products couldn't be sold to minors, who are sometimes sent shopping by meth makers in a practice called "smurfing."

*Clarify existing penalties for stealing anhydrous ammonia and buying, moving or distributing any amount of the farm fertilizer knowing it will be used to make meth.

*Make having meth, its ingredients, waste products or paraphernalia around children or vulnerable adults a felony punishable by five years in prison.

*Impose tougher penalties for possessing the chemical precursors with intent to manufacture meth; require restitution to the public for emergency response; require police to notify health and other agencies of lab sites; include protections to ensure property is cleaned up before people live in contaminated sites; require the cleanup status of the property be attached to land deeds or vehicle records.

*Create a statewide revolving loan cleanup fund offering low-interest loans.

*Create an account to help educate people about the drug.

In early 2004, Attorney General Mike Hatch opposed the idea, hoping that the Gang Strike Force would receive continued funding.

Bill battles growing problem;
PREVENTION:A bill in the Minnesota Legislature aims at curbing the meth problem, and its proponents say they're just getting started.

BYLINE: BY CHRIS HAMILTON; NEWS TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

BODY:
By the time hay fever attacks Minnesotans this summer, those with allergies may need to ask a store clerk to reach behind the counter to buy a box of Sudafed.

That's because Minnesota legislators -- with an eye toward stemming the growing methamphetamine problem -- have put together a package of laws to consider this session.

A proposal by Rep. Bob Gunther and Sen. Julie Rosen, Fairmont Republicans, would lock cold and allergy medications behind a checkout counter. The medications contain ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, used to make meth in homemade labs. People who want to buy the drugs would need to show identification to prove they're at least 18. The proposal also would prohibit the sale of more than two packages at a time and require store employees to report "suspicious" purchases of certain drugs and household products to their managers, who in turn could report it to police.

But Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch said the law could be skirted and misses the point. The real threats are gangs, who bring in up to 80 percent of Minnesota's meth from California and Mexico, he said.

Still, Minnesota lawmakers say similar laws have had success in other states, but they weren't enacted until meth use had reached overwhelming proportions.

"Minnesota is learning from the mistakes of other states that didn't respond to the problem until it was too late," Rosen said. "We are on the cusp of an ugly epidemic here, if we aren't already in one."

INGREDIENTS

In Iowa and Oklahoma, where meth is more widespread, state legislators this year have proposed laws that would require pseudoephedrine buyers to show photo ID and to sign for the drug.

Some Minnesota stores have set limits on the number of common meth ingredients that a person can buy at once, said Carol Falkowski, a research specialist for the Hazelden Foundation, a Minnesota-based nonprofit chemical-dependency treatment facility.

That has changed only recently, said Sgt. Dennin Bauers, head of the Lake Superior Drug Task Force. Duluth retailers were behind the curve, he said. People used to come to Duluth from all over the state to buy the precursor drugs in bulk, Bauers said.

Twin Ports convenience stores and pharmacies, including Target and Wal-Mart, have set limits, a News Tribune sampling this week found.

The Minnesota Grocers Association, which represents 1,200 stores statewide, for the most part backs the sales portion of the bill, which would make it a misdemeanor to sell to someone younger than 18 and require that the drugs be locked in a display box.

However, the association's executive director, Nancy Christensen, said the bill in its current form would be impossible to comply with. She said there isn't enough space to put every product that contains pseudoephedrine behind the counter.

Proponents of the bill, though, say putting the products behind the counter also would end the problem of meth makers shoplifting ingredients.

Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Special Agent Paul Stevens said the bill's authors decided to target small-time makers because they do the most damage in their communities. Those users tend to be hard-core addicts, and it's where child abuse and neglect problems are found, he said.

"The problem is expanding rapidly, and that expansion is not expected to stop anytime soon, particularly if we do not act strongly," said Deborah Durkin, a Minnesota Department of Health environmental health specialist.

Duluthian Terry "Brian" Parsons, who was addicted to meth for 31 years, said government controls of the precursor drugs may have an effect, if limited, on the drug trade.

THE GANG FACTOR

Hatch said he doesn't believe such restrictions will reduce the problem. Meth-making rings employ a method called "smurfing," in which they use multiple people to buy the maximum number of items at different stores, Hatch said.

"The laws that are being proposed... are a bit outmoded," Hatch said. "Methamphetamine is largely perceived to be made in the trunk of a car or somebody's kitchen -- that it's not mass distributed.

"Now gangs have gotten involved. What was once perceived to be a drug in a trailer park is now easily accessible throughout the country and state," he said.

"'If you want to address this issue, you gotta fund the Gang Strike Force," Hatch said.

The Minnesota Gang Strike Force, which coordinates gang-crime investigations, was created in 1997. It has 60 officers from police departments statewide, including Duluth, where the regional headquarters are; state and local money pays for the officers.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty's administration cut most of its biannual $3.6 million budget to balance last year's budget deficit. Much of it was later restored, but only temporarily. Hatch said he proposes fully reinstating Gang Strike Force money.

This year, Commissioner of Public Safety Rich Stanek proposed combining the Gang Strike Force with the Drug Advisory Task Force -- which distributes federal money to regional drug task forces across the state, including those in Duluth and Virginia -- to save money. But Hatch said the result would be fewer resources dedicated to drug and gang investigations.

"It is not the time to scale back, but if we're not raising taxes and not spending what we know we should, we have to cut back," said Rep. Mary Murphy, DFL-Hermantown, who added that the task force issue has not been decided.

In addition, some officers on the regional drug task forces, created in 1990, fear their funding may not make it to next year because the Bush administration didn't include a $704 million grant in its budget proposal.

[snip--section was about Wisconsin]

AWARENESS

Minnesota's Rosen-Gunther bill is the brainchild of a Martin County narcotics officer fed up with the meth problem there. The Minnesota departments of Health, Agriculture, Transportation and Public Safety have worked on it.

One aspect of the bill sets up a retail education fund. It would help pay for a statewide publicity campaign to help store employees recognize when people are making suspicious purchases and report them to their bosses or to authorities.

Suspicious transactions are defined as those that would lead a "reasonable person to believe that the substance is likely to be used to illegally manufacture a controlled substance."

Fred Friedman, Northeastern Minnesota's chief public defender, takes issue with the bill's suspicious-activity provisions.

"It's no secret that the backrooms of all the stores have these signs up already that say, 'If you see someone buy this or that or this, call us,' " he said. "They're trying to turn everybody into the Gestapo."

Other Midwest states have begun large-scale meth-educational campaigns in recent years.

The bill's measures are "good first steps, but they are not solutions to the problem," Murphy said. "Until people become aware and see how the meth creeps up on their community, there's not a whole lot you can do."

Murphy and many drug-rehabilitation experts said what's needed are education programs of every kind, for as many segments of the population as possible. (Duluth News-Tribune March 2, 2004)

It's interesting to see Bob Gunther as a sponsor, since his family runs a grocery store and other businesses in Fairmont.

Now, just as Bob Gunther has family ties in Minnesota's business community, so too does Senator Rosen. Her husband, Tom Rosen, owns Rosen Industries, an agribusiness concern which distributes farm chemicals and packs meat. Mr. Rosen is on the Board of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce.

Not exactly anti-business sorts.

Julie Rosen also has the distinction of being one of the Republican challengers who knocked off a sitting DFL state senator in 2002, a fact which contrasts with David Strom trembling when he reflects on the GOP's electoral odds:

The political fallout from Pawlenty's pandering to the Senate continues. . . . Any chance of taking the State Senate appears to be fading, although it is way too early to be sure of anything.

But back to our chronology of dumb ideas.

The restrictions on cold tablet sales in the 2004 House bill were weakened in committee, at the suggestion of industry lobbyists:

Meth bill loses some strength
Conrad deFiebre; Staff Writer

Pill purveyors and bean counters laid the first stumbling blocks Thursday in the path of a popular bill to crack down on methamphetamine, an illegal stimulant said to be ravaging outstate Minnesota.

At the request of pharmacists and drug companies, the House Judiciary Committee scaled back the bill's proposed controls on the sale of legal medicines used to manufacture meth. Then, facing projected new prison and court costs of nearly $4 million over the next three years, the panel moved toward removing proposed mandatory sentences for meth offenders.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Doug Fuller, R-Bemidji, was approved on a lopsided voice vote and sent to the Civil Law Committee. Although a DFL motion to remove the mandatory sentences was narrowly defeated, Fuller promised to make efforts to do that and build in treatment for offenders before the bill reaches the House floor.

As it stands now, the bill would require a minimum sentence of two years in prison for possessing methmaking chemicals with intent to manufacture and three years for repeat offenses.

"No other drug offense has mandatory minimums," said Rep. Eric Lipman, R-Lake Elmo, who also labeled the bill's lack of treatment provisions "a very gaping hole."

But Rep. Mary Murphy, DFL-Hermantown, said mandatory sentences could have value because "we want to appear uncompromising and relentless in our intent to close down these meth labs."

Earlier, the committee, with little debate, stripped out proposals to ban sales to minors of so-called meth "precursor drugs" such as the decongestant pseudoephedrine and to require that the drugs be displayed in locked cases or near checkout counters.

In another change sought by industry lobbyists, the committee raised a proposed limit on single sales of precursor drugs from two packages to three, totaling 9 grams in weight. It also added exemptions for such drugs in children's doses or in new formulas being developed that would prevent conversion to methamphetamine. (Star Tribune March 5, 2004)

The Senate version was similar to the original Fuller draft:

Bill restricts sale of meth ingredients
BY JOHN WELSH; Pioneer Press

A crime bill unveiled in the Minnesota Senate on Wednesday would place new restrictions on retail outlets that sell nonprescription drugs criminals use to make methamphetamine.

The methamphetamine problem has been growing rapidly in Minnesota, and local law enforcement officials have been seeking tougher penalties and more weapons in the latest drug fight.

The crime bill introduced Wednesday by Sen. Leo Foley, DFL-Coon Rapids, includes a major methamphetamine package, including restrictions on the sale of drugs that contain pseudo-ephedrine or ephedrine.

The bill limits the sale of those products to three packages per customer. Also, stores must take one of the following actions: using an electronic anti-theft system on the drugs, banning their sale to minors or placing the products behind a checkout counter or directly in front of an attended checkout counter.

"This knocks off a lot of loopholes,'' said Foley, chairman of the Senate Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee. "We are controlling the precursors, and that is the important part.''

The Senate bill is similar in many ways to the House anti-meth bill sponsored by Rep. Doug Fuller, R-Bemidji.

Both Foley and Fuller's bills:

Set up procedures to notify buyers of cars or homes when they are purchasing property that once stored meth labs.

Create a new criminal code for meth-related activities that affect children or vulnerable adults, including exposing the victims to harmful chemicals during the drug manufacturing process. Both bills allow for five-year prison terms for convictions. The House, however, gives the sentencing judge the power to make the defendant serve the prison time consecutively with other prison terms instead of concurrently.

Another difference is that the House bill contains a mandatory minimum prison sentence of two years for manufacturing-related offenses. The House bill does contain the three-pack sales limit in stores but does not include some of the other restrictions on precursor drugs included in the Senate bill.

Despite the differences in the House and Senate approaches, fighting methamphetamine has attracted support from both Republicans and Democrats, and it is likely many of the proposals will become law.

By one measure, methamphetamine activity doubled from 2002 to 2003, and the state estimates there are 10,000 waste sites left over from its manufacture.

"This gives police officers additional tools,'' said prosecutor Scott Hersey, who is head of the criminal division of the Dakota County Attorney's Office. "We need that because there is a lot of meth labs out there.'' (Saint Paul Pioneer Press March 18, 2004)

Anti-meth legislation ended up being a victim of the general gridlock of the 2004 session. Pawlenty offered his own meth plan in late October, 2004, signing on to the Rosen-Gunther restrictions:

October 25, 2004
Pawlenty issues plan to fight meth
By BRIAN BAKST, Associated Press Writer

Gov. Tim Pawlenty promised Monday to wage more than a "Just Say No" campaign against methamphetamine, calling for stiffer penalties for makers of the drug and new steps to curb its production and use.

The Republican governor outlined his four-point plan before a national conference of legislators, law enforcement officials and other professionals who deal with the drug.

"Meth addiction is the steepest, slipperiest slope known to mankind and too many are falling off the edge based on ignorance," Pawlenty said. "People need to know this is not crystal meth, it is crystal death. And the death that it brings is slow, it is awful, it is painful, it is corrosive and it is destructive in so many ways."

Methamphetamine is a powerful stimulant that can be made in rudimentary labs out of common products including lye, lithium batteries and anhydrous ammonia, a common farm fertilizer. The process is dangerous and can leave toxic contamination.

The plan Pawlenty expects to present to the Legislature next year seeks to:

-Prevent meth use by having schools and other community groups discuss its dangers and by limiting access to over-the-counter medicine often used to make the drug.

-Prosecute meth makers with the aid of 10 new state narcotics agents focused on meth only and enact increased penalties for producers. Having meth ingredients with the intent to make the drug would carry a 10-year prison term and an extra five years would be tacked on if children or vulnerable adults are present.

-Help local officials clean up sites used as meth labs by creating a state revolving loan fund. Users would be forced to pay restitution and no buildings or cars used as meth labs could be resold until cleanup is complete.

-Develop new treatment protocols to deal with meth users, including those in prison and on probation.

Pawlenty said his proposal would cost $3.5 million over the next two years plus an untold amount in added prison costs.

Little in Pawlenty's package is original. Many parts have been debated in the Legislature before. What's new is the priority Pawlenty said he will place on the issue in the upcoming session.

Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont, has sponsored past meth bills and hopes the governor's advocacy pays off.

"It's not just a rural problem anymore," she said. "It's in every corner in the state. It's not just a blue-collar problem anymore."

There were 301 labs seized in Minnesota in 2003, about 75 percent of which were in rural or semi-rural areas, according to the state Department of Public Safety.

Pawlenty made repeated mention to an Oklahoma law that restricts the sale of so-called precursor ingredients - like Sudafed and other medicine containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine - by putting them behind store counters. He hasn't fully endorsed that idea, but he is considering it.

Buzz Anderson, president of the Minnesota Retailers Association, said his group wants to work with Pawlenty but notes that such restrictions can be problematic. Anderson said thousands of products contain the pseudoephedrine but only about 10 or 11 products are favored by meth cooks.

The drug often leads to violent and paranoid behavior, so the retailers group also worries about putting store clerks in danger if they refuse sales to meth producers.

"We've never been opposed to restricting some of the precursors," he said. "It's just a matter of how do you restrict them and which do you restrict."

Pawlenty is following the lead of Republican legislators here, rather than leading them down a path they didn't want to go.

In 2005, the Rosen-Gunther ideas re-emerged with broad bipartisan support. Hatch had signed on, as the Gang Task Force would be funded. And since Doug Fuller was one of the 13 Republican House members to go down in defeat, anti-meth legislation in the House was handed off to Jeff Johnson, who is hoping to gain the GOP nod for the 2006 Attorney General's race.

Saint Paul Pioneer Press
January 7, 2005
Broad meth battle plan is unveiled;Bipartisan effort tackles state 'crisis'
BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER

On this, Minnesota leaders from across party and geographic lines are united: The state must immediately work to counter the scourge of methamphetamine.

The fight got another boost Thursday from Attorney General Mike Hatch, who was joined by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher and former North Dakota Gov. George Sinner. They unveiled a proposal -- expanding on similar proposals from Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty -- to rein in meth and its impact.

"I don't see this as a partisan issue. ... We've just got to start working together," said Hatch, a Democrat. "We're dealing with a crisis."

The proposal would:

* Limit the sale of over-the-counter cold pills.Minnesotans could buy up to 9 grams in 30 days (roughly three to 12 boxes) and require retailers to put such pills behind their counters. Meth makers need cold pills or similar sources of pseudoephedrine or ephedrine to produce the drug.

* Require locks on tanks of anhydrous ammonia, another necessary meth ingredient.

* Investigate whether the state can sue distributorsof bulk pseudoephedrine. Large-scale meth makers use the compound in their superlabs. The vast majority of meth bought in Minnesota is made in massive labs outside the state.

* Request an auditof meth addiction treatment programs to explore what works.

* Renew fundingfor the Gang Strike Task Force.

The measures are sweeping and potentially costly in the short term but need to be so, proponents said, because of how pervasive meth is. A cost estimate of the proposal was not available.

The drug, which got its Minnesota start in rural areas, has now infiltrated cities and suburbs, filling the state's prisons and jails and addicting thousands.

In the Itasca County jail this summer, more than 90 percent of prisoners were somehow involved with meth, authorities said. Crow Wing County, population 57,000, spent $1.8 million tracking, prosecuting and treating meth offenders, officials estimate.

"Methamphetamine is taking over the state of Minnesota," Sheriff Fletcher said. "It is ... far more dangerous than any other drug."

Democratic state Sens. Wes Skoglund and Satveer Chaudhary and Democratic state Rep. John Lesch will sponsor the legislative parts of the proposal, which also won backing from Sen. Julie Rosen, a Republican from Fairmont who has been a leading voice in her party in the meth fight.

"This is a bipartisan approach," said Rosen, who also was on hand when Pawlenty unveiled his anti-meth proposal in October. That package also would limit access to cold pills, create a public awareness campaign and concentrate resources on treatment. Additionally, it would pay for 10 new state narcotics agents, increase penalties for meth makers and create cleanup standards for meth labs.

Pawlenty said in a Thursday news release that he looked forward to "strong bipartisan legislation" passing this session.

With the high-profile backing and the statewide focus, it seems certain this Legislature will pass a wide-ranging anti-meth package this year. But lawmakers made similar pledges last year. In the end, those efforts got stuck in legislative gridlock.

The Strib approved in an editorial:

Star Tribune
January 14, 2005
War on meth; Make it a session priority

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has lined up on the right side of a spat that last year stalled a comprehensive legal assault on sale and use of the psychotropic drug methamphetamine, or "meth."

That gubernatorial push should help get the anti-meth bill assembled last year by Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont, moving well in advance of the 2005 session's omnibus bills.

Combatting the meth crime epidemic should be seen as urgent lawmaking business. Scarcely a week passes in Minnesota without news of another violent crime in which the suspected culprit is addicted to meth. Its chronic use is associated with intense paranoia, hallucinations and violent rages, as well as an assortment of physical maladies. Photos of severe tooth decay caused by the drug, published in this newspaper earlier this month, gave many readers a lingering chill.

Rosen's bill attacks meth in a variety of commendable, noncontroversial ways. It would lengthen sentences for manufacture, sale and use of the drug, add 10 meth specialists to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, start a program of public education and create a fund for the cleanup of the smelly mess a "meth lab" leaves behind.

Just one provision in Rosen's package met with resistance last year from retailers and House Republicans. It requires that the nonprescription cold remedies containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, used to make meth, be sold from behind a pharmacy counter, with a limit of two packages per customer. Further, it provides that consumers must show a photo ID and provide a signature before buying.

Those are inconveniences, to be sure. But Rosen reports that when those retail rules were employed in Oklahoma, the number of meth production labs discovered in the state dropped more than 60 percent. Results that positive have legislators in a number of meth-plagued states, including Iowa, North Dakota and Wisconsin, seeking restrictions of their own on the easy purchase - or theft - of drugs containing ephedrine. Minnesota needs to get into this fight too.

Pawlenty told the crowd at the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce's annual session-starting dinner that he supports moving those medicines behind pharmacy counters. His considerable sway over House Republican thinking should speed the progress of Rosen's bill this year.

So, finally, we see Pawlenty being evoked as a supporter of this legislation--in an op-ed piece in the Star Tribune, which labels the resistance to the restrictions as being centered in House Republicans, though promoted by Senate Republican Julie Rosen.

The Strib editorial writers leave out the Gunther and Fuller part. It looks as if this particular editorial might be the genesis of the notion that somehow House Republicans were standing tall on principle.

From this distance, it looks as if a House committee had removed some of the restrictions in 2004 at the instance of lobbyists--"with little debate"--rather than because of some particularly Republican principle.

I'm not faulting the lobbyists--that's their job. But, abetted by the Strib's editorial take, Strom is folding this issue into a Republicans/conservatives V. The Senate frame, and it just isn't the case, unless Bob Gunther is chopped meat.

Here's a Strib article on industry efforts to alter the bill:

METHAMPHETAMINES;Pharmacy group opposes part of plan to curb meth
Conrad deFiebre; Staff Writer

A key element of a legislative proposal to curb the manufacturing of methamphetamine by moving stocks of popular nonprescription cold remedies behind pharmacists' counters faces opposition from some quarters of the pharmaceutical industry.

Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont, said Wednesday that when Oklahoma recently reclassified pseudoephedrine, an important ingredient in the illegal stimulant, as a Schedule V controlled substance, it saw an almost immediate 70 percent drop in the number of meth labs seized.

"Oklahoma has also seen a declining supply of that higher-purity, homemade meth and is beginning to see some reduction in meth use overall," she said. Minnesota and 22 other states are moving to follow Oklahoma's lead, she added.

But the 1,800-member Minnesota Pharmacists Association said that while it supports most efforts to curb meth abuse, the behind-the-counter proposal is "problematic for pharmacists."

Under legislation sponsored by Rosen and Rep. Jeff Johnson, R-Plymouth, pharmacists would have to store more than 300 products containing pseudoephedrine behind their counters, sell them only to people 18 and older and log all purchases.

"It puts us in a position of being police," said Julie K. Johnson, executive vice president and CEO of the association. "Workable restrictions on precursor products used in illegal manufacture of methamphetamine can be done effectively without imposing Schedule V."

Schedule V is a category of federal drug law that once covered a handful of nonprescription remedies. No drugs are currently classified as Schedule V in Minnesota.

The industry group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America has taken no position on the Schedule V issue, said its Minnesota lobbyist, Linda Carroll-Shern.

She added, however, that the drug firms Pfizer Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, makers of popular pseudoephedrine-based medications, have stepped into the fray. Lobbyists for those firms did not return a reporter's calls on Wednesday.

Julie Johnson said the pharmacists' group supports "workable restrictions" on the sale of meth ingredients, including placing products that contain only pseudoephedrine behind counters. It also backs limits on the amounts of the drug that can be sold and especially a statewide standard instead of a growing patchwork of local ordinances.

"Our members are concerned about meth," she said. "Many of them are already restricting sales and locking up their precursor stocks."

The association, however, opposes age limits on sales of pseudoephedrine and any requirement to log or track sales. Julie Johnson said that the Oklahoma law on which the Minnesota bill is modeled has been on the books too short a time to judge its effect.

Lawmakers Rosen and Johnson offered their bill at the kickoff of a second annual Meth Awareness Day at the Capitol, where private and government groups presented the problems of meth abuse and proposed solutions.

In addition to the Schedule V provision, the Rosen-Johnson measure would increase penalties for meth manufacturing when children are present, assist meth lab cleanup, assign 10 new state crime investigators to meth cases and develop new addict treatment strategies and school-based meth awareness and education programs. (Star Tribune January 20, 2005)

The Senate voted unanimously for the restrictions, after defeating an amendment offered by rural Democrat Gary Kubly to allow gas stations and convenience to sell cold tablets if they were kept under lock and key.

March 3, 2005
Senate unanimously OKs meth bill limiting cold medicine sales
By MARTIGA LOHN, Associated Press Writer

Runny nose? Stuffy head? Need to get your hands on some medicine?

Before cold season is out, you might have to go to the pharmacy counter, present ID and sign a log for certain cold medicines, if a broadly supported bill aimed at getting tough on methamphetamine use in Minnesota becomes law.

All 67 state senators voted for the restrictions Thursday. It's part of a crackdown that includes stricter penalties for making meth and better cleanup of the toxic leftovers from meth labs around the state.

Lawmakers want to clamp down on cold medicines including Sudafed and Actifed because meth cooks stockpile the products and distill their active ingredients, psuedoephedrine or ephedrine, to make the drug. The Senate bill would reclassify pseudoephedrine and ephedrine as controlled substances - changing the landscape of how some now widely available products are sold.

"The consumer is going to have access to common cold medicines severely restricted," said Nancy Christensen, executive director of the Minnesota Grocers Association. "Most groceries and all convenience stores that carry this don't have pharmacies. With the exception of some liquid products, it would disappear off the shelves."

The legislation makes exceptions for pediatric products containing the substances and liquid and gel-cap versions. One of the bill's sponsors, Republican Sen. Julie Rosen of Fairmont, passed out a list of 89 over-the-counter medicines - including Children's Tylenol, Claritin and Dayquil - that wouldn't be restricted under the bill.

Senators voted 53-12 against an attempt by Sen. Gary Kubly, DFL-Granite Falls, to allow gas stations and convenience stores to sell the products if they were kept in locked cases.

Kubly argued that his proposal would have made life easier for rural Minnesotans living 30 miles or more from the nearest pharmacy.

"We don't want to impose undue restrictions on the public," Kubly said. "This would also help people in the city. During the cold season, you have a lot of people standing in line for other products. It will not only put a burden on our pharmacists but also a burden on the people who will spend more time waiting in line."

But the bill's sponsors said Minnesota needs the tough restrictions on cold medicines - already being considered by neighboring states - or the state could face an influx of meth addicts searching for ingredients to make the drug. Already, the state's prisons have seen a steep rise in the number of drug offenders sentenced for meth crimes.

"Our first response should be getting the product that is essential and necessary to this very, very dangerous substance off the shelves and behind the pharmacy counter," said Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis.

Christensen said the restrictions would give an edge to pharmacy chains and retailers such as Target and Cub Foods that have pharmacies, while other stores would be faced with angry customers who can't find familiar products.

"I think people will be shocked," she said.

Grocers and pharmacists are already participating in a campaign to keep better tabs on products used to make meth, she said. She also suggested a statewide electronic database for all retailers to stop people who go from store to store to build up an inventory of medicines containing psuedoephedrine or ephedrine.

The Senate bill directs the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to develop a plan for a statewide pharmacy database tracking purchases of the products by 2006. The bill would also prevent pharmacies from using information from their customer logs for purposes other than law enforcement.

Meanwhile, a House methamphetamine bill containing the restrictions on cold medicines has already won approval from two committees and awaits a third committee hearing next week.

So how did a total ban get into that House anti-meth bill, sponsored by Jeff Johnson?

Why, another Republican House member, Mike Charron, R-Plymouth. From what I can gather from reading around about Charron's amendment to the Jeff Johnson bill, the idea of a total ban emerged like Athena from the head of Zeus during debate on the House floor--not as part of Pawlenty's leadership or lack thereof. You know, the stuff giving David Strom such a headache:

April 21, 2005
House approves cold medicine ban to stop meth's spread
By MARTIGA LOHN, Associated Press Writer

The Minnesota House overwhelmingly passed a ban on some popular over-the-counter cold tablets Thursday as part of a package to crack down on methamphetamine, a powerful illegal drug that's swept through the state.

The ban, which would go into effect by mid-2006, would pull all cold and allergy pills that contain pseudoephedrine, a crucial meth ingredient, from under consumers' noses. The only way to get the tablets would be to visit a doctor and get a written prescription. Liquid and gel-cap versions of the medications would still be sold without restrictions - for now.

Lawmakers are targeting tablets because they yield the pseudoephedrine used in homegrown meth labs. So far, lab busts in Minnesota haven't shown that meth cooks are using liquid or gel-cap formulations of the cold medicines.

The 127-4 vote for the meth package, which would also ratchet up sentences for making meth, reflected the reach of the highly addictive narcotic, which has caused crimes or meth lab accidents in every corner of the state. The bill's sponsor, Republican Rep. Jeff Johnson of Plymouth, said no other state legislature has gone as far as banning the cold remedies outright.

"This is by far the most significant meth bill that's ever passed out of any legislative body in the country," Johnson said after the vote, while also acknowledging that the final bill may look different.

The Senate last month unanimously voted to restrict the sale of pseudoephedrine tablets - brands including Sudafed and Actifed - to pharmacies. That bill would also cap purchases at about eight packages a month and make customers show ID and sign a log. Johnson backed the same proposal going into Thursday's floor debate.

But Rep. Mike Charron, R-Woodbury, proposed banning the pills. He said liquids and gel-caps would still be available, and so would a Sudafed version that doesn't contain pseudoephedrine.

"We can eliminate all the hassle for our pharmacies," Charron said. "We have a dangerous drug that is being abused. We should ban in it Minnesota. I believe we should ban it in other states as well."

Currently, six states limit the sale of pseudoephedrine drugs to pharmacies, and seven others make retailers lock up the products or sell them from staffed counters. Legislatures in 22 states, including Minnesota, are considering similar restrictions.

The House bill was written to limit the tablets to pharmacies starting this summer. That would be trumped by the ban next year - unless the ban is tied up in the courts. The state Board of Pharmacy would also have the power to pull liquids and gel-caps containing pseudoephedrine back to pharmacies if authorities determine meth labs are using them.

The House defeated attempts to let convenience stores and groceries sell two-tablet packages of the cold remedies from behind staffed counters or in locked cases.

"We're not talking about a drug that saves your life or a drug that takes you out of great pain," said Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester. "This is just a drug that opens up your nasal passages, folks. ... What is life or death is having these drugs available."

[snip]

The AP story the next day:

April 22, 2005
Ban on cold pills gains momentum in Minnesota
By MARTIGA LOHN, Associated Press Writer

About a dozen states are forcing stuffed-up consumers to look behind pharmacy counters or in locked cases for their favorite cold and allergy medications. Minnesota might go further.

The Republican-controlled state House on Thursday approved a ban on cold tablets that can be broken down to make methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug that's fueled a long list of brutal crimes in the state.

It's the first such ban approved by a state legislative body and means the tablet forms of common medications including Sudafed and Actifed would be available only with a prescription when the ban would take effect in August 2006.

The vote came after a lawmaker rattled off a litany of meth-related atrocities that happened in his colleagues' back yards, including the hatchet killing of a Dilworth man over $50 or $60 drug debt in December.

"Meth labs and meth addicts cause real fear in our districts," said Rep. Peter Nelson, R-Lindstrom. "We in Minnesota are more serious than a heart attack about getting meth out of our stores."

Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont, said she doubts the ban on cold tablets - which can be broken down chemically to yield meth's crucial ingredient, pseudoephedrine - will survive a conference committee.

The Senate last month unanimously voted to restrict sales of cold tablets to pharmacies and make customers present identification and sign for purchases, capped at about seven packages a month. The bill's sponsor, DFL Sen. Linda Berglin of Minneapolis, said the House went too far.

Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty backs tougher meth laws and said he would consider signing a pseudoephedrine tablet ban. First he wants more public hearings on the issue.

"The meth crisis is a beast, and you don't fight beasts with peashooters," Pawlenty said Friday. "We need to bring in some heavier artillery, and that's what the ban would be."

He added: "It (methamphetamine) is devastating the lives of way too many people and it is approaching a crisis of national proportions."

Grocers, pharmacists and the makers of over-the-counter drugs weren't excited about the ban.

"It's a pretty extreme measure," said Mary Ann Wagner of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. "There are still many legitimate consumers who depend on pseudoephedrine products for allergies and colds."

Many states and national store chains limit quantities of cold tablets consumers can buy in a single transaction. Six states restrict pseudoephedrine medications to pharmacies, and another seven require retailers to lock up the products or sell them from behind staffed counters. Legislatures in 22 states, including Minnesota, are considering similar restrictions.

Minnesotans would still have unfettered access to pseudoephedrine in liquid and gel-cap form, but the House bill gives the state Board of Pharmacy the power to push those medications behind pharmacy counters if drugs labs begin using them.

Lab busts in the state have shown that meth cooks are using pills, not liquids or gel-caps, but Rusty Payne, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman, said that could change as tablets become harder to find.

He said extracting pseudoephedrine from gel-caps is possible. "It can be done and it's not that difficult," he said.

About 4,200 products containing pseudoephedrine are currently on the market.

Restrictions on cold tablets might put more pressure on manufacturers to develop new cold products that contain alternatives to pseudoephedrine, such as phenylephrine. But some of those products may face lengthy reviews from federal regulators, said Virginia Cox, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Healthcare Products Association.

Even the cold tablet ban wouldn't stop meth in Minnesota, since about 80 percent of the drug comes from major labs outside the state, said Nancy Christensen of the Minnesota Grocers Association.

The Pioneer Press reported on the reaction to the House bill banning cold tablets:

Meth bill gets mixed reviews; Some see overreaction; others back cold pill ban
BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER;

A move by state lawmakers to ban sales of certain cold pills in Minnesota drew accusations of extremism from some and high praise from others Friday.

The Minnesota House overwhelmingly backed a measure to forbid all over-the-counter sales of pseudoephedrine-containing pills Thursday. The pills not only soothe drippy noses; they also are used to make the illegal drug methamphetamine.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Friday he would consider supporting the measure if it reached his desk. Meth, he said, is a "beast" that requires aggressive action.

"You can't fight a beast with a peashooter. We need heavier artillery," Pawlenty said. He said the ban, which came up as an amendment during a House floor debate, needs to have a full public airing so concerns about it can be aired and resolved.

Many states have considered or adopted laws to limit access to the cold and allergy pills in the fight against meth, a powerfully addictive stimulant linked to a variety of societal ills. But none has adopted a total ban on the over-the-counter medicines.

"That's the most extreme measure we've seen yet," said Mary Ann Wagner, a vice president at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

A handful of states have recently curtailed access to the pills and limited the number of boxes customers can buy. Earlier this week Minneapolis-based Target Corp. announced it would voluntarily pull all pseudoephedrine products from its store shelves nationwide and put them behind pharmacists' counters. Wal-Mart, the largest U.S. discount retailer, will follow suit, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Woodbury Republican Rep. Mike Charron, who pushed for the ban on the House floor Thursday, said he hadn't heard many complaints after its House passage.

Rep. Jeff Johnson, R-Plymouth, whose larger meth-fighting bill became home to the cold pill ban, said he heard a variety of reactions to the measure but most of his correspondents supported the measure.

"I've received several e-mails from folks with allergies who are upset about the ban -- although many of them don't realize that liquids and gelcaps are still unrestricted. I've received even more e-mails of thanks from around the state asking that we hold strong and not weaken the bill," Johnson said.

If it became law, the total ban would go into effect August 2006 to allow time to deal with possible legal challenges.

In the meantime, all pseudoephedrine-containing pills would have to be kept behind pharmacy counters and pharmacists would keep logs about customers' purchases. The Minnesota Senate last month passed a bill that would enact that interim solution. The differences will be worked out by a House-Senate conference committee.

In supporting the total ban, lawmakers said it would free pharmacists from those hassles. But Gary Raines, the pharmacist and owner of Setzer Pharmacy on Rice Street in Roseville, isn't celebrating the plan.

"I think talking to irate customers would be more of a hassle," Raines said. Setzer already keeps pseudoephedrine-containing cold pills, like Actifed and Sudafed, behind the counter, in part because they were getting stolen off the shelves. He thinks statewide restrictions on access to them would be enough.

"I can't imagine banning a substance that's approved by the FDA," Raines said.

Fern Johnson, a Setzer customer, agreed.

"I think they are dictating too much," Johnson said of lawmakers. "Soon we won't have a right to anything."

Outside a Walgreens drugstore in St. Paul, Mary Sobasky concurred. She said she would be happy to have the pills behind the counter of pharmacies but still wants to be able to buy them.

"I don't think they should be out in the open, but they are really helpful to people with colds," she said.

Minnesota doctors Friday said those folks would get by just fine without pseudoephedrine-containing pills, particularly since gelcap and liquid versions of the decongestant still would be available.

Meth makers typically use the tablet form of the medication to extract the key pseudoephedrine ingredient, but the House bill gives the state the power to ban gelcaps and liquids if drug labs begin using them, too.

Moreover, pseudoephedrine tablets would be available by prescription.

"I could practice quite well if they took all of the Sudafed away," said Dr. Terry Cahill, a family practitioner in Blue Earth and a trustee of the Minnesota Medical Association. Cahill said he supports the idea of the ban. The physicians' association, however, has not taken a position on it.

One doctor even saw a positive side effect to the limit because some people who take the cold pills on their own suffer complications. Dr. Kevin P. Peterson said every year he tells 100 to 200 patients at the HealthEast Oakdale clinic not to take the medication.

Moreover, he couldn't think of any reason patients would need to have their cold and allergy medicine in tablet form rather than gelcap or liquid.

"Usually, it's the other way around," he said. "People will sometimes have problems swallowing the pills and will need a liquid." (Saint Paul Pioneer Press April 23, 2005)

So, let's recap in our effort to name names.

Restrictions: Bob Gunther, Julie Rosen, Doug Fuller--followed by Pawlenty, Jeff Johnson and bipartisan support, including Mike Hatch, Linda Berglin.

Ban/No Sudafed in stores: Mike Charron, Jeff Johnson. Pawlenty followed along in public.

And it seems like taking the outright ban out of the conference committee bill was....a concession to the Senate.

Or maybe proposing a total ban of Sudafed was an example of "loving a bill to death."

Or do conservatives want to play pin the tail on the donkey with the "no Sudafed" virus?

So whose dumb idea is that?

They could just blame Oklahoma.