LAWMAKERS SCORE PILLS TO COOK UP SUPPORT FOR PRESCRIPTION BILL

An Hour Of Legal Shopping By Four Legislators Yields Enough Cold
Pills To Make $900 Of Meth

SALEM -- Four Oregon legislators pretending to be "smurfers" working
for methamphetamine cooks say it took them only an hour to buy enough
cold pills to produce 180 hits of the illegal drug.

The lawmakers on Tuesday displayed the results of their afternoon
shopping trip, which they said demonstrated why the Legislature needs
to pass even tougher restrictions on the sale of cold and allergy
medicines containing pseudoephedrine.

A bill set for a House floor vote this morning would require
prescriptions for all drugs containing pseudoephedrine, which is a
key ingredient in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine.

While the bill has appeared to garner strong support in the House and
Senate, the Schering-Plough pharmaceutical company launched a radio
advertising campaign Monday encouraging Oregonians to complain to
their legislators about the proposed restrictions.

In addition, some lawmakers critical of the bill say the restrictions
- -- which would be the toughest in the nation -- would make it more
difficult and expensive to get common medicines that consumers have
come to rely upon.

Oregon has already adopted regulations that require many common
medications to be kept behind pharmacy counters and sold only to
buyers who show their identification and sign a log. Law enforcement
officials say the restrictions have appeared to cut the number of
meth houses statewide in half.

Although the bulk of the state's meth is illegally imported from
Mexico, officials say local drug houses supply about 35 percent of
the market. They say the local meth houses also contain toxic
chemicals that endanger children and are a neighborhood blight.

The legislators backing the prescription requirements say their
shopping trip demonstrated that "smurfers" -- people obtaining
pseudoephedrine for meth cooks -- can get around the current restrictions.

"In just an hour's time, we were able to get enough raw material for
a very respectable cook of meth," said Rep. Greg Macpherson, D-Lake
Oswego, "and it wasn't hard."

The quartet -- which also included Rep. Wayne Krieger, R-Gold Beach,
and Sens. Roger Beyer, R-Molalla, and Ginny Burdick, D-Portland --
bought 22 packages of such common products as Sudafed, Tylenol Cold
and Theraflu. They said each of them stayed within the law limiting
an individual's purchases to nine grams of pseudoephedrine a month.

Rob Bovett of the Oregon Narcotics Enforcement Association said the
packages would produce about 180 hits of meth with a street value of
about $900.

Jim Anderson, a lobbyist representing Schering-Plough, said he wasn't
impressed by the legislative shopping expedition.

"Is that surprising to anybody?" he asked. "It is a legal product."

He said requiring consumers to obtain prescriptions would drive up
the cost of relatively inexpensive drugs, particularly for people
without health insurance.

Schering-Plough on Monday began running ads in the Portland market
that seek to raise public pressure on legislators to reject the new
restrictions, which are contained in House Bill 2485.

"What if you had to see your doctor to get a prescription for
over-the-counter products that you normally buy when you have a cold,
allergies or the flu?" the commercial asks. "The Oregon legislature
is actually considering a bill that would force you to do this."

The ad concludes by giving listeners a number they can call to
complain to their legislators about the bill.

Sponsors of the measure say the prescription requirement would not be
particularly onerous. Unlike prescriptions for highly regulated
drugs, Krieger noted that prescriptions for these cold and allergy
medications could be dispensed over the phone and that consumers
could get up to five refills in a six-month period.

In addition, the legislators said that many cold and allergy
sufferers can now use alternative products made with phenylephrine,
which can't be used to make meth and are available on open store shelves.

"There's going to be unhappy people," Beyer said. "But at what point
do you want convenience versus what's right for society?"

Sen. Vicki Walker, D-Eugene, who opposes the restrictions, said that
once the cold and flu season hits, many Oregonians will conclude the
Legislature has gone too far if this bill becomes law.

"Do you know how people got upset at the school speed law?" she
asked. "This is going to be 10 times worse."

Walker was referring to the 2003 passage of a bill requiring that a
20 mph limit around schools be observed at all hours. That led to a
backlash from voters that prompted the Legislature to ease up on the 2003 law.

Walker said she received 260 responses to an e-mail survey she sent
out to voters, and only about 10 said they supported the prescription
requirement.

The bill is part of a package of four measures that would increase
some meth-related crime penalties and provide money for drug treatment.