```

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 5461 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>

118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 5461

To amend the Controlled Substances Act to prevent unnecessary resource 
         expenditures relating to methamphetamine prosecutions.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 10, 2024

  Mr. Kennedy (for himself, Mr. Hagerty, and Mr. Cruz) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
To amend the Controlled Substances Act to prevent unnecessary resource 
         expenditures relating to methamphetamine prosecutions.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Preventing Unnecessary Resource 
Expenditures Act'' or the ``PURE Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Methamphetamine is a powerful, highly addictive 
        synthetic psychostimulant that affects the central nervous 
        system. It can cause both short- and long-term adverse effects, 
        including violent behavior, permanent neurological damage, and 
        overdose death.
            (2) Beyond its destructive effects on individual health, 
        methamphetamine abuse threatens communities, generates criminal 
        behavior, produces unemployment, contributes to child neglect 
        and abuse, and breaks up families.
            (3) Domestic production of illicit methamphetamine in the 
        United States has decreased significantly. Over the past 20 
        years, clandestine methamphetamine laboratory seizures in the 
        United States decreased from a high of 23,703 seizures in 2004 
        to 60 seizures in 2023.
            (4) However, according to the Centers for Disease Control 
        and Prevention, between 2002 and 2022, the rate of overdose 
        deaths involving psychostimulants, primarily methamphetamine, 
        increased more than 34 times, with 0.3 deaths per 100,000 in 
        2002 and 10.4 deaths per 100,000 in 2022.
            (5) In 2020, methamphetamine surpassed cocaine as the 
        second most common drug involved in overdose deaths, after 
        fentanyl, and it has remained in second place since then. 
        According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 
        from 2021 through 2023, methamphetamine was associated with 
        95,063 overdose deaths.
            (6) According to the 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment 
        published by the Drug Enforcement Administration, 31 percent of 
        drug-related deaths in the United States are caused by 
        psychostimulants, mostly methamphetamine.
            (7) From 2021 through 2023, the Drug Enforcement 
        Administration seized 232,926 kilograms of methamphetamine. By 
        comparison, from 2001 through 2003, the Federal-wide Drug 
        Seizure System showed a total seizure of 10,305 kilograms of 
        methamphetamine.
            (8) The sharp rise in methamphetamine offenses and 
        overdoses can be attributed to Mexican cartels, which now 
        produce the vast majority of the methamphetamine distributed in 
        the United States.
            (9) The People's Republic of China supplies the bulk of 
        precursor chemicals that are used in the production of 
        synthetic methamphetamine by Mexican drug cartels. In turn, 
        Mexican cartels produce significant quantities of highly pure 
        methamphetamine in large laboratories at low cost. The cartels 
        then smuggle the illicit substance across the border into the 
        United States.
            (10) Methamphetamine offenses now account for approximately 
        half of all drug trafficking offenses sentenced federally.
            (11) Under section 401 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 
        U.S.C. 841), the mandatory minimum sentences for manufacturing, 
        distributing, or dispensing methamphetamine, or for possessing 
        methamphetamine with the intent to manufacture, distribute, or 
        dispense, are triggered based on the purity of the confiscated 
        methamphetamine.
            (12) The basis for the disparity in mandatory minimum 
        thresholds between pure and impure methamphetamine was the fact 
        that defendants in possession of pure methamphetamine were 
        believed to be higher up in the distribution chain and thus 
        more culpable.
            (13) According to the 2024 report on Methamphetamine 
        Trafficking Offenses in the Federal Criminal Justice System by 
        the United States Sentencing Commission, in 1988, when a 
        majority of the methamphetamine distributed in the United 
        States was produced by domestic laboratories and the average 
        purity of methamphetamine was rarely greater than 50 percent. 
        Today, it is rare for methamphetamine to test under 90 percent 
        pure. The methamphetamine tested in fiscal year 2022 had an 
        average purity of 93.2 percent, with a median purity of 98.0 
        percent.
            (14) The shift towards purer methamphetamine occurred as 
        Mexican cartels obtained greater market share of 
        methamphetamine production and distribution beginning in the 
        early 2000s. The average purity per kilogram of methamphetamine 
        tested by the Drug Enforcement Administration in 2002 was 43 
        percent, but by 2005 the average purity was 80 percent.
            (15) The requirement to establish purity in prosecutions of 
        methamphetamine distribution places a significant burden on 
        Federal and State crime laboratories, contributing to a waste 
        of resources and the overburdening of laboratory technicians 
        who are already backlogged.
            (16) The purity requirement for methamphetamine 
        prosecutions is no longer needed given the statistical 
        improbability of any drug dealer distributing impure 
        methamphetamine.
            (17) At the same time, methamphetamine is a greater threat 
        to the health, safety, and welfare of the people of the United 
        States than it has ever been.

SEC. 3. ADJUSTMENTS TO LABORATORY REQUIREMENTS IN METHAMPHETAMINE 
              PROSECUTIONS.

    Part D of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 841 et seq.) is 
amended--
            (1) in section 401(b)(1) (21 U.S.C. 841(b)(1))--
                    (A) in subparagraph (A)(viii), by striking 
                ``methamphetamine, its salts, isomers, and salts of its 
                isomers or 500 grams or more of''; and
                    (B) in subparagraph (B)(viii), by striking 
                ``methamphetamine, its salts, isomers, and salts of its 
                isomers or 50 grams or more of'';
            (2) in section 408 (21 U.S.C. 848)--
                    (A) by redesignating subsection (s) as subsection 
                (f); and
                    (B) in subsection (f), as so redesignated, by 
                inserting ``a mixture or substance containing a 
                detectable amount of'' after ``involving''; and
            (3) in section 419a (21 U.S.C. 860a), by inserting ``a 
        mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of'' before 
        ``methamphetamine''.

SEC. 4. AMENDMENT TO THE SENTENCING GUIDELINES.

    (a) Directive.--Pursuant to its authority under section 994 of 
title 28, United States Code, and in accordance with this section, the 
United States Sentencing Commission shall review and, as appropriate, 
amend the sentencing guidelines and policy statements applicable to 
persons convicted of offenses under section 401 of the Controlled 
Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 841) involving methamphetamine, its salts, 
isomers, and salts of its isomers, or related crimes involving the 
manufacture, distribution, or dispensing, or possessing with intent to 
manufacture, distribute, or dispense methamphetamine, its salts, 
isomers, and salts of its isomers.
    (b) Requirements.--In carrying out this subsection, the Sentencing 
Commission shall--
            (1) take all appropriate measures to ensure that the 
        sentencing guidelines and policy statements applicable to the 
        offenses described in subsection (a) are sufficiently stringent 
        to deter and adequately reflect the direct and aggregate harms 
        caused to individuals, families, communities, and society by 
        such offenses; and
            (2) consider providing sentencing enhancements for those 
        convicted of the offenses described in subsection (a) that--
                    (A) involve a large number of victims;
                    (B) involve a pattern of continued and flagrant 
                violations;
                    (C) involve the use or threatened use of a 
                dangerous weapon; or
                    (D) result in the death or bodily injury of any 
                person.
                                 <all>
```