Pubdate: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 Source: Des Moines Register (IA) Copyright: 2004 The Des Moines Register. Contact: http://DesMoinesRegister.com/help/letter.html Website: http://desmoinesregister.com/index.html Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/123 Author: Tom Alex METH TIE: HY-VEE RESTRICTS SALES OF COLD PILLS Products Meth-Makers Look For Will Be Kept In The Pharmacy. Iowa's largest grocery chain has clamped down on the sale of common cold remedies that can be used to make methamphetamine. Hy-Vee Food Store officials announced Thursday that products with pseudoephedrine, a decongestant, will be moved to the pharmacy, where they will be sold only to people who show identification and sign their names. The stores will limit purchase of the 14 name-brand cold, allergy and sinus remedies to two packages per visit. Children's medicines are not included. The new rules, in effect at 219 Hy-Vee and Drug Town stores in seven states, 127 in Iowa, come as Iowa's top drug-enforcement agent is pushing lawmakers for similar statewide restrictions. "This will only inconvenience the meth-makers, which is good. We don't want them to make it," said Jan Reuskens, who shopped at the East Euclid Hy-Vee in Des Moines on Thursday. "When my children get ill, or my husband or I, then I go buy one package. If it's not over after that, then it's probably more serious and we need to go to the doctor." The products will be removed from grocery aisles and put behind pharmacy counters. Hy-Vee spokeswoman Ruth Mitchell said that at 24-hour stores, the products won't be available after the pharmacist goes home. Stores without pharmacies will keep medicines in the customer service department. The policy targets Sudafed tablets, Dimetapp Extentabs, Dibromm Extended Release tablets, Drixoral 12-hour Cold Tablets and store-brand Suphedrine tablets in pill, tablet and capsule forms of 30 milligrams or more. Narcotics officers say meth "cooks" extract ephedrine from the remedies to make the highly addictive stimulant. Authorities say they have come across the Hy-Vee brand at meth "labs." "Any step that can slow it down is a positive step," Des Moines Police Capt. David Lillard said. "It can't do anything but help." Ron Pearson, chairman of Hy-Vee Inc., said company officials have worked closely with law enforcement authorities and drug policy experts to prevent theft and help identify people who buy suspiciously large amounts of pseudoephedrine products. But with meth use continuing to escalate in the Midwest, he said, the tougher restrictions are necessary. "Meth is a scourge that destroys our lives," Pearson said. "We have to stop it at the point of manufacture." Meth drove about 5,300 Iowans into drug treatment in 2002, up 43 percent from only five years earlier. Meth is the top agenda item for law enforcement officials, which is why Marvin Van Haaften, director of the Office of Drug Control Policy, has called for pseudoephedrine to be classified at a higher level of controlled substance. If lawmakers approve, all Iowans would have to show identification and sign their names to buy common cold or allergy medicines that contain it. But legislative leaders have said they are more likely to approve limits on how many packages can be bought, rather than restrict pseudoephedrine sales to pharmacies. Van Haaften applauded Hy-Vee's initiative. He called it "a positive start" but added that "more needs to be done." David Sinnwell, president of Dahl's Food Marts, said his company has a two-package customer limit for pseudoephedrine, and "in all cases, a customer needs assistance to purchase them." "We've done this earlier in some stores where pilferage was a big problem," he said. Eventually the policy stretched to all 11 Des Moines-area stores. Dahl's, however, does not require customers to sign for the products. Shannon Erickson, pharmacist at Medicap Pharmacy in Pleasant Hill, said the store monitors sales but does not require a signature for pseudoephedrine products. Medicap has 19 outlets in central Iowa. "We know our customers pretty well," Erickson said. The store keeps small boxes on hand, and typically allows customers to buy one box. Nathan Beattie, 18, a Grand View College student and Hy-Vee shopper, called any effort to curb pseudoephedrine sales "a good idea." "I think it's good they are taking it off the shelves, so it helps keep meth off the streets," he said. Meth Measure *Hy-Vee and Drug Town stores will move certain cold medicines behind pharmacy counters. * Customers will be limited to two boxes of medicine per visit. *Each purchase will be recorded, with the customer's name. *The policy applies to 14 products that contain 30 milligrams or more of pseudoephedrine, a common decongestant. *The policy targets Sudafed tablets, Dimetapp Extentabs, Dibromm Extended Release tablets, Drixoral 12-hour Cold Tablets and others. Iowans' Views 52 percent have heard that medicine containing pseudoephedrine is used to make meth. 50 percent consider it to be a major problem. 79 percent would strongly or moderately support rules that require a pharmacist or clerk to monitor purchases of products with pseudoephedrine. 79 percent would strongly or moderately support a requirement for customers to show identification to purchase the products. 82 percent would strongly or moderately support a limit on how many products with pseudoephedrine could be purchased at one time. *Survey conducted by the University of Northern Iowa's Center for Social and Behavioral Research Limits In Place ARIZONA: Eight packages. ARKANSAS: Three packages. CALIFORNIA: Three packages. MISSOURI: Two-package limit if it is sole active ingredient; three packages otherwise. NORTH DAKOTA: Two packages. OREGON: Three packages. WASHINGTON: Three packages. HAZLETON: The eastern Iowa town of 950 requires stores to monitor the sale of cold medicine, engine-starter fluid and other products used to make meth. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman