The Combat Meth Act would require drugs containing pseudoephedrine to be sold behind pharmacy counters. But state leaders worry that Congress will bend to lobbying pressure by the pharmaceutical industry and weaken the federal legislation, which would override stronger laws passed at the state level.

Iowa, for example, has the strongest anti-meth law in the country and bans over-the-counter sales of liquid and starch-based pediatric medicines containing pseudoephedrine, which the federal law would allow. "Our legislation ought to be the national model," said Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. "Anything less than what Iowa is doing can minimize the security that can come from this bill."

The original Combat Meth Act authored by Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) would not have superseded state law. But the bill has since been amended so that it does. A spokesperson for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that she has been "working with the industry and Republicans to try to get a bill that everyone can support ... The pharmaceutical industry would fight strongly anything that wasn't a national standard."

"I am concerned," said Marvin Van Haaften, head of the Iowa Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy. "We spent over two years debating, studying, discussing and wisely constructing the (state) bill that would become our final product. Now, the federal measure is in a state of flux, and we could easily wind up with a bill that is considerably weaker than ours."

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