Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman is opposing a city ordinance restricting access to products used for methamphetamine production.
Hallman said at a City Council meeting Thursday that the ordinance would harm efforts to get a similar statewide law enacted.
If Tempe were to pass its own regulations, the city would lose its ability to influence the state Legislature, Hallman said in an interview Thursday.
"We won't have much of a position to complain about the lack of regulation," he said.
A uniform law would be significantly easier to enforce than a series of contradictory laws across Arizona, Hallman added.
Hallman said he and Vice Mayor Mark Mitchell had been lobbying the Legislature for two years to get such a law passed.
Thursday was the first of two public hearings for proposed regulations that would place products containing pseudoephedrine and related chemicals behind the counters of Tempe stores.
Pseudoephedrine is found in many common cold and allergy medicines and is a key ingredient in methamphetamine production.
"[Meth] is a gateway drug as well as a dead-end drug," Hallman said. "It's extraordinarily addictive."
During the meeting, Mitchell referred to a Jan. 20 editorial in The Arizona Republic about the effects of Oregon's anti-meth law.
Since the legislation took effect in April 2005, the number of meth-lab busts in Oregon fell from 447 in 2004 to 185 last year, according to the editorial.
"Going city-by-city is not the way to do it," Mitchell said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "It's a statewide issue."
But even a statewide law might not be enough, Hallman said.
A substantial portion of the meth supply is now being imported from Mexico, Hallman said.
But the state should still make an effort to stop the problem, Mitchell said.
"We can be proactive to protect our children," he added.
Bob Mings, 70, of Tempe, said he supported a city ordinance.
"Many communities have already passed effective, anti-meth ordinances," Mings said. "[This ordinance] will provide real protection for all Tempeans."
Therese Lucier, 54, of Tempe said it was nonsense for the city to restrict access to allergy medications like the Claritin-D she said she desperately needed.
"Let's not make the merchants turn into drug police," Lucier added.
Tempe's ordinance would require any person buying cold medicine to present government-issued photo identification at the time of purchase.
The buyer's name, date of birth, amount of product purchased, transaction date and the seller's initials would be kept for 90 days.
Tempe's ordinance requirements could prevent potential meth producers from buying or stealing large quantities of pseudoephedrine products, said Marlene Pontrelli, city attorney.
Similar regulations have already been adopted in other Valley cities, including Chandler and Phoenix.
Major national chains, like Albertson's and Target, have already placed pseudoephedrine products behind the counter to have a common selling policy in the country, Pontrelli said.
Reach the reporter at grayson.steinberg@asu.edu.
