COLD MEDICINE'S INGREDIENT USED TO MAKE METH

Got the sniffles? Pseudoephedrine is a popular cold medication that dries
up congested sinuses, but you won't find it on the shelves of some Stockton
drugstores.

Pseudoephedrine, sold under brand names like Sudafed and Actifed, is one of
the primary ingredients used to manufacture methamphetamine, an illegal
stimulant.

At Longs Drug Store on Quail Lakes Drive, pseudoephedrine products are
stored in a locked glass case that can be opened only by a pharmacist or
Jennifer Schneitman, an over-the-counter specialist.

Walgreen drugstore on Hammer Lane and Lower Sacramento Road opted for
product displays, taping empty boxes of Sudafed to the front of shelves
next to signs that direct customers who want to purchase the product to
cash-register employees.

In both cases, high rates of pilferage led to the change.

"We were driven to this," said Bob Amorello, the Walgreen manager. "We
could fill that shelf, and in 10 minutes it would be empty. One time we
filled the shelf and went into the stockroom, and when we came out
everything was gone."

Schneitman said she used to find empty blister packs inside the Longs
store, making it apparent that thieves had pocketed the pills.

California law prohibits stores from selling more than three packages or 9
grams of products containing pseudoephedrine. Even one package triggers a
cash-register warning at the Rite Aid drugstore on Pacific Avenue, where a
manager must approve the sale before the transaction can be completed.

A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official predicted four years ago
that methamphetamine chemists would turn to blister packs of
pseudoephedrine when other sources of the chemical tightened.

"DEA believes that traffickers will logically and inevitably turn to
'blister packs' as the source of uncontrolled pseudoephedrine as bulk
quantities through wholesalers ... become more difficult to obtain," Harold
D. Wankel, DEA chief of operations, told the U.S. House Judiciary Committee
in September 1996.

That increase has occurred, said Joycelyn Barnes, a DEA spokeswoman in San
Francisco.

Agencies such as DEA and CRACNET, the San Joaquin County Combined Rural and
City Narcotic Enforcement Team, report that drugstore chains are
cooperating in efforts to stem the flow of pseudoephedrine for illegal
purposes.

Even so, the Western States Information Network, which collates drug and
gang data for the Western U.S., reports that 2,014 methamphetamine and
pseudoephedrine labs were busted in California in 1999, and 1,096 have been
shut down so far this year.

California is still the nation's biggest user of methamphetamine and leads
the nation in meth exports, said Craig Michaels, a special agent supervisor
with the California Department of Justice who is assigned to CRACNET.

One solution might be to make pseudoephedrine a controlled drug, such as a
narcotic or opiate that requires a prescription, Michaels said.

Walgreen's Amorello wonders why decongestant manufacturers don't add
something to the formula to make the pseudoephedrine pill less attractive
to methamphetamine manufacturers.

Sudafed pills that contain pain-killer ingredients apparently are harder to
process into methamphetamine and are not shoplifted, Schneitman said.

As a result, those forms of Sudafed remain available for consumers to
select from store shelves.

Pfizer Inc., which merged with Sudafed manufacturer Warner-Lambert earlier
this year, is aware of the medication's misuse and is discussing options
with federal drug officials, spokesman Bob Fauteux said.

"We're working with authorities to find approaches to inhibiting conversion
of the active ingredient, but I can't go into any details," he said.

Fauteux said company officials find it "appalling" that a product designed
to reduce cold and allergy symptoms is misused on such a wide scale.

"We certainly find it very much contrary to the mission of a company like
Pfizer, and we sympathize with consumers who intend to use it appropriately
and with retailers who are made to jump hurdles," he said.