PURE Act

Bill: 118-s-5461
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Kennedy, John [R-LA]
Introduced: 2024-12-10
Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement
Latest action: action_date: 2024-12-10
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Summaries:

tv_txt: II 118th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 5461 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.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Preventing Unnecessary Resource Expenditures Act or the PURE Act . 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. 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 . 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.