GROCERS NOT HAPPY WITH PLAN TO REMOVE COLD DRUGS

An association representing Canadian grocers is hoping the
Saskatchewan government will permanently shelve a plan to remove
cough, cold and allergy medications from grocery stores.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers (CFIG) disagrees with
the January recommendation from the National Association of Pharmacy
Regulatory Authorities (NAPRA) to remove multi-ingredient products
containing pseudoephedrine and ephedrine from grocery and convenience
stores by Monday.

Those products -- which include Sudafed, Triaminic and Advil Cold &
Sinus, among others -- are used in the making of crystal
methamphetamine, the stated reason behind NAPRA's decision. Under the
recommendation, the items would remain available in pharmacies and
would not be moving behind the counter.

The recommendation has already been rejected in British Columbia and
Alberta, but is strongly endorsed by the Saskatchewan College of
Pharmacists (SCP), a NAPRA member.

"The short of it is, we think it's a socially responsible action to
take," said SCP registrar Ray Joubert. "We're doing our part as much
as we can to help control the problem."

While Joubert admits known meth labs currently get their supply in
bulk rather than from individual sale at stores, he said the effort
to remove these products from stores is a proactive step to make sure
it does not happen.

"Our evidence suggests that once these bulk suppliers are eliminated,
the next target will be retail so we're better off to be positioned
to restrict our sales right now than to have to react somewhere down
the road," he said.

Joubert said the SCP passed a series of bylaw amendments in February
that have been passed on to the provincial government for approval. A
government spokesperson said a response will be issued early next week.

The CFIG is anxiously awaiting that response, having stated its case
to the province on a number of occasions, said Gary Sands,
vice-president of the grocer association. He said his group's biggest
concern is a belief that NAPRA is doing this to eliminate competition.

"If you want to be proactive, you can't be proactive just with
grocery stores," said Toronto-based Sands. "That's the problem with
NAPRA and the Saskatchewan college's argument. If you're going to be
proactive, if that's your argument, then you must take this out of
grocery stores and in the pharmacies you have to move it behind the counter."

He said if meth producers start looking for the products in stores
rather than bulk, the CFIG would support moving the medications out
of stores, as long as they are also going behind the counter at
pharmacies. Late last year, single-ingredient cold medications
containing pseudoephedrine were moved behind the counter to help
combat the making of crystal meth.

Joubert maintained this is not a commercially driven recommendation,
adding he does not expect it will cause an accessibility problem for
cold and allergy sufferers who need the products.

If approved, the NAPRA recommendation would still allow the products
to be sold in grocery stores that contain a pharmacy.

That may not be a possibility in rural Saskatchewan, said Sands.

"In rural Saskatchewan, you do have a lot of communities where
there's a grocery store but no pharmacy, and that's what I think some
of the retailers are concerned about," he said.