State officials say they’ve seen a nearly 50-percent drop in meth lab busts since drugs containing pseudo-ephedrine were placed behind counters this Spring. Yesterday, the Bush administration announced support for legislation limiting the sale of the drug. Even so, one local man recently discovered that people wanting to buy pseudo-ephedrine in large amounts need look no farther than a popular internet auction site.
Craig Dulniak works on the staff of state Senator Steve Cohen. In the leadup to the passage of the Meth Free Tennessee Act, Dulniak says he learned a lot about the how easy it is to make meth from medicines containing pseudo-ephedrine. On a whim, Dulniak logged on to eBay to see if the medicines were available for sale. He says he was shocked to find auctions for bulk packages of more than 300 pills containing pseudo-ephedrine.
“At least 30 states in the United States have enacted legislation either restricting how much Sudafed can be sold at a time or keeping a log of who buys it and when, that kind of thing. And I just couldn’t believe that eBay just didn’t know that there were that many states that prohibited it, or just didn’t care.”
Dulniak says he contacted eBay, asking them to limit sales of cold medicines on their site, but so far their only response to him has been a generic form letter. Now Dulniak is asking the state government to help. Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Jennifer Johnson says director Mark Gwyn plans to meet with lawyers to draft a request that eBay reconsider the practice.
Representatives from eBay were unavailable for response, but posted on the website is a statement that the company intends to “ensure its sellers and buyers comply with all governmental laws and regulations.”
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