Iowa’s Drug Czar says he’s pleased with the progress Iowa has made in battling the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine in the state — but still wants a few more changes to Iowa law. Marvin Van Haaften oversees the Office of Drug Control Policy he wants to tweak Iowa law to make it match the recently passed federal law.
Van Haaften says he’s presented a proposal to the legislative services bureau that would make Iowa law similar to provisions in the federal law that he says are tougher than Iowa’s law.
Van Haaften says one of the tougher provisions involves the amount of pseudoephedrine you can buy. Van Haaften says the federal law has a daily limit you to buying only seven-point-five grams of the drug per day, while Iowa law has no daily limit. Pseudoephedrine is one of the key ingredients used to make meth.
Van Haaften would like to link changes to match federal law with a change that adopts a rule that’s new in Oklahoma. Van Haaften says Oklahoma has a “real time” tracking of sales of drugs with pseudoephedrine in them so all pharmacies know instantly when someone buys pseudoephedrine, and can stop someone who has bought their limit.
Van Haaften says Iowa’s law that moved drugs containing pseudoephedrine behind the counter has cut meth labs by 77 percent in the state, and the addition restrictions would help even more.