Pubdate: Mon, 21 Feb 2005
Source: Winston-Salem Journal (NC)
Copyright: 2005 Piedmont Publishing Co. Inc.
Contact:  http://www.journalnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/504
Note: The Journal does not publish letters from writers outside its daily 
home delivery circulation area.

WORTH THE TROUBLE

If North Carolinians want to stop the in-state manufacture of
methamphetamine, they'll have to put up with a little inconvenience at
the drug store.

So be it.

Legislators are discussing ways to restrict availability to a key
ingredient in the manufacture of meth that is readily available on
drug-store counters. Meth manufacturers have been known to go into
drug stores and sweep the shelves clean of cold tablets containing
pseudoephedrine. They grind the tablets into a powder and use the
pseudoephedrine for the manufacture of meth. There is no legal limit
to the amount of cold tablets someone may purchase.

Attorney General Roy Cooper, who pushed through a tough set of
anti-meth laws during the 2004 session, says he wants the toughest
restrictions on pseudoephedrine sales that he can get. The tougher
those restrictions, the more difficult it will be for criminals - but
the more inconvenient for those of us with runny noses, too.

Cooper and legislators say they'd like to see cold tablets with the
meth ingredient moved behind the counter, where customers would have
to request them. They are discussing a limit on the number of packages
that could be bought at one time and possible requirements for showing
identification.

All of that is good, but those measures alone are unlikely to stop the
flow of ingredients to the manufacturers. North Carolina should look
to Oklahoma, which has led the nation in fighting meth, for other
ideas. Oklahoma law limits access to products containing
pseudoephedrine, and the state is establishing a computerized database
that would register every purchase of the product.

Already there are grumblings from people in North Carolina afraid that
fighting illegal drug sales might cost the state's pharmacies a few
legal dollars. Rep. Mitch Gillespie, R-McDowell, said that he wants to
fight meth manufacturers but not hurt retail merchants.

There's no way not to hurt the merchants who are now benefiting from
the increased sales of these products to meth manufacturers. But it is
hard to believe that the pharmacies are in any way interested in
profiting from this trade, in light of the enormous human costs of
meth addiction. A little inconvenience to the merchants and a few lost
sales won't hurt them. Nor will a little inconvenience for those
buying the products for legitimate purposes.

Meth is nothing to go easy on. It is a horrible drug that not only
destroys the people using and manufacturing it but also harms those
around them, the police who raid their facilities and the environment
in which they operate. Defeating this scourge is worth a few minutes
of waiting for a clerk to produce cold tablets from behind a counter.
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