[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3430 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 3430
To amend the Controlled Substances Act to prevent unnecessary resource
expenditures relating to methamphetamine prosecutions.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
December 11, 2025
Mr. Kennedy (for himself, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Hagerty, and Mr. Graham)
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 34 seizures in 2024.
(4) However, according to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, between 2002 and 2023, the rate of overdose
deaths involving psychostimulants, primarily methamphetamine,
increased more than 35 times, with 0.3 deaths per 100,000 in
2002 and 10.6 deaths per 100,000 in 2023.
(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 2024, the Drug Enforcement
Administration seized 182,000 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, the average
purity of methamphetamine was rarely greater than 50 percent.
Today, it is rare for methamphetamine to test under 80 percent
pure. According to the 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment
published by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the
methamphetamine tested in 2024 had an average purity of 95.1
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.
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