Pubdate: Mon, 08 Aug 2005
Source: Sun Herald (MS)
Copyright: 2005, The Sun Herald
Contact:  http://www.sunherald.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/432
Author: Janet McConnaughey, Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

LA. LIMITS ON SOME COLD DRUGS TAKE EFFECT AUG. 15

Anti-Meth Measure Draws Some Ire

NEW ORLEANS - Louisiana's new law regulating the sale of Sudafed and
similar cold medicines takes effect Aug. 15, and pharmacists who will
have to enforce it see it as just another rock on an existing mountain
of regulation.

Thirty-three states, including Mississippi, restrict the amount of
ephedrine or pseudoephedrine pills people can buy and sell because the
drug is a major ingredient for illegal methamphetamine labs, according
to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

A stricter federal bill also is in the works for such medicines, which
include Procter & Gamble Co.'s Nyquil as well as Pfizer Inc.'s
Sudafed. And drug companies are changing their ingredients to
eliminate those which can be used for meth.

Louisiana's new law also requires stores to limit boxes on their
display shelves, to keep those shelves in easy eyeshot or keep a
videocamera on them, and to check customers' photo IDs and make them
sign a receipt or log book.

"We don't sell that much, and don't see that it's that much of a
problem," said Leonard Sullivan of Sullivan's Pharmacy in Zachary.

It might be a burden on chain drug stores, which sell more of
everything, said Gerlando "Gerry" Messina, owner of Messina's Pharmacy
in Baton Rouge.

It's overall record keeping, for insurance companies and physicians as
well as the state, that's the real problem, Sullivan said. "With the
consulting and all the record keeping, it pretty much gets to the
point that it makes our life miserable," he said. "They keep cutting
our fees... and they keep demanding that we do more."

He followed news reports about the law while it was still in the
Legislature.

Randy Carr of Carr Drugs on New Orleans' West Bank and other
independent pharmacists also said they didn't sell large amounts of
the drugs.

Still, Carr said he isn't looking forward to the new record-keeping.
"It's going to be a pain," he said. "People are not going to want to
have to do one more thing - sign a log book, show your ID."

The records must be kept only for 15 days. "Then what?" he asked. "Are
we supposed to shred it? File it? Are we responsible to do the
cross-referencing? It's going to be interesting to see how it's all
interpreted."

He hadn't heard about that requirement for logbooks or signed
receipts.

The state Board of Pharmacy plans to have mailed bulletins reach
pharmacists statewide by Aug. 12, the Friday before the regulations go
into effect. Asked if that was short notice, executive director
Malcolm Broussard said, "The public is on notice whenever the
Legislature passes a law."

Some chains got word out to their franchises considerably earlier.
"Our stores were all notified of that in mid-July," said Mike
DeAngelis, spokesman for CVS Corp. in Woonsocket, R.I.

He said CVS already required its stores to keep all pills or liquids
in which ephedrine or pseudoephedrine was the only active ingredient
behind the druggist's counter, and limited sales to 9 grams per customer.

Louisiana is moving to an even stricter limit: 9 grams per customer,
per month.

And that's not the strictest state law. Alabama and Minnesota restrict
sales or purchases to two packages, or 6 grams. The state of
Washington allows only pharmacists or pharmacy employes or
practitioners to sell products in which pseudoephedrine or ephedrine
is the only active ingredient, and they have to keep their log books
for two years.

In Oregon, which already had a 9-gram limit, a bill requiring a
physician's prescription for ephedrine or pseudoephedrine has been
sent to the governor, who supports it. It will take effect next July.

When it returns from its recess, the U.S. Senate is likely to vote on
a federal bill that is stricter than Louisiana's. It would limit
customers to 7.5 grams - about 250 30-milligram pills - in 30 days,
require customers to sign a log book, and use computer tracking to
keep people from going store-to-store.

And legal drug makers are changing many of their formulas. Pfizer
plans to be using phenylephrine, rather than pseudoephedrine, in up to
half of its products by January. Leiner Health Products, which
supplies generic cold and allergy drugs to retail chains such as
Costco, Target, Walgreens and Wal-Mart, began shipping new products
containing phenylephrine in June.

Every Louisiana pharmacist interviewed agreed that something must be
done to keep the ingredients out of the hands of people who want to
misuse them to make meth.

"We need to keep the drugs off the street. No question," Carr said.
"The problem is, is everybody else doing this? Is Canada doing this?
Is Mexico doing this? How easy is it going to be to get the chemicals
from other places?"
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin