Five months after Florida began restricting access to over-the-counter cold remedies containing pseudoephedrine, federal lawmakers are pushing a much tougher crackdown on some of the best-known brands in the sniffles business. If the bipartisan proposal passes muster on Capitol Hill, photo IDs could be required to buy such common and popular drugs as NyQuil and Sudafed. Written logs of who purchased the drugs, and how much was purchased, It's all part of a national effort to keep addicts from using cold medicines to whip up illegal batches of methamphetamine. Pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in virtually all decongestants, is also the base chemical used by home-and-garage labs brewing so-called "meth." [continues 915 words]