If you get the sniffles in Iowa you’ll have to show I.D. before a pharmacist will sell you cold medicine. It’s the latest attempt to control the epidemic growth of a different drug, methamphetamine, that’s sweeping that state.
Iowa is enacting tough new laws designed to curb the sale of meth ingredients, like cough medicine and iodine. Ten years ago, meth took hold as the drug of choice in the heartland. It came from outside, trucked in on the interstates that cross this part of the country.
The problem turned into a crisis as users discovered ways to make their own meth using ingredients easy to find at local stores. Now policemen in rural areas have to fight a homegrown drug making industry, while at the same time trying to save the addicts and their children. The Meth Problem in rural America.
Guests:
Sue Armstrong, co-facilitator for Mothers Off Meth
Wendy Haight, social work professor at University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana
Marvin Van Haaften, director of the Iowa Governor’s Office of Drug Control.