A bill that would limit access to common cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, an ingredient that can be used to make the highly addictive drug methamphetamine, has been unanimously approved by the Senate judiciary committee.
The Combat Meth Bill has been forwarded to the full Senate by the committee, and a similar bill in the House of Representatives has been referred to a subcommittee for consideration.
In speaking to Congress, Bush administration officials and law enforcement officers from around the country said methamphetamine addiction, once confined to western and mainly rural regions of the United States, has spread to the entire nation and now also is affecting urban and suburban areas.
According to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, methamphetamine had surpassed marijuana as the greatest danger to the nation's children.
The legislation was sponsored by California democrat senator Diane Feinstein, and will mean cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, such as Sudafed, NyQuil, and Tylenol Cold, will be behind pharmacy counters and could limit how much one person can buy to 7.5 grams a month.
The bill is modeled on an Oklahoma law, which has been copied by at least a dozen other states, and has resulted in a large drop in the number of meth labs seized by authorities.
Feinstein says the approval signaled a good day in the fight against methamphetamines and brings closer the possibility of a national meth bill that would put thousands of meth labs out of business.
She hopes the senate will pass the act in September.