Pubdate: Sun, 05 Jun 2005
Source: Sun Herald (MS)
Copyright: 2005, The Sun Herald
Contact:  http://www.sunherald.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/432
Author: Sam Hananel, The Associated Press

SUPPORT GROWS FOR RESTRICTIONS ON METH INGREDIENTS

WASHINGTON - The days of buying some cold remedies off the shelf in drug
stores soon may be gone, a casualty of the methamphetamine epidemic.

Already more than a dozen states have laws that require retailers to sell
Sudafed, Nyquil and other medicines only from behind the pharmacy counter.

Now Congress is working on legislation intended to make it tougher for
people to get the ingredients needed to manufacture the highly addictive
drug.

Retailers once resisted the idea, saying it would inconvenience consumers.
Today, stores seem ready to go along with a federal law in hopes of avoiding
a tangle of state regulations.

This month, a Senate committee plans hearings on a bill that sharply
restricts the sale of cold and allergy pills containing pseudoephedrine.
This ingredient is used to "cook" meth in makeshift labs across the country.

"There's a lot of public pressure to do something," said Sen. Jim Talent,
D-Mo. He has joined with Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., on a bill to limit
the sale of cold medicines. "I think retailers - most of them - do not want
to sell their products to meth cooks and they know they have to do
something."

The pharmaceutical industry has not raised major objections.

Pfizer Inc., which makes Sudafed, supports a national law that would put
pseudoephedrine behind the counter.

The meth problem is particularly severe in the Midwest, where rural areas
provide cover for the pungent chemical odor from meth labs. In Missouri, law
enforcement officers seized more than 2,700 meth labs last year - the most
among states.

The Senate bill is modeled on an Oklahoma law that took effect in April. The
proposal would require the sale of medicines with pseudoephedrine only by a
pharmacist or pharmacy personnel.

Customers would have to show a photo ID, sign a log and be limited to 9
grams - or about 300 30-milligram pills - in a 30-day period. The government
can make exceptions in areas where pharmacies are not easily accessible.

Kmart, Walgreens, Target, Wal-Mart and other leading retailers have put in
place guidelines to move cold products behind pharmacy counters or limit
their sales.

Last month, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores endorsed a set of
principles that includes limiting access to the drugs.

"We do think it's time for a federal solution," said Mary Ann Wagner, the
association's vice president of pharmacy regulatory affairs. "It's just
becoming so complicated when you look at a map across the country and no two
laws are anything alike."

She said that store employees - not just those in the pharmacy - should be
able to sell the medication as long as they are under a pharmacist's
supervision.

The Bush administration has not taken a public position on the Senate bill.
But John Horton, associate deputy director for state and local affairs for
the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said early signs
show that state laws are having a positive effect.

A report by the drug office last month found a 50 percent drop in the number
of meth labs in Oklahoma and Oregon, two of the first states to enact laws
restricting the purchase of pseudoephedrine-containing products.

"We know that when we prevent the methamphetamine cooks from getting the
ingredients they need to make the meth, that the problem becomes smaller,"
Horton said.

Horton estimates about one-third of the meth comes from small labs in the
United States, while two-thirds is smuggled in bulk from big labs outside
the country, mainly Mexico.

Lt. Steve Dalton, supervisor of the Combined Ozarks Multi-Jurisdictional
Enforcement Team, an anti-drug police task force in Branson, Mo., said the
meth trade is the worst drug problem he has seen.

"A federal law is not going to wipe it out, but if we can get away from the
cleanup of these meth labs, it's going to free up a lot of our time and we
can target those that are bringing it in from across the border," Dalton
said. 
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