DRUGGISTS TACKLE METH MAKERS

Cold Remedies Moved Behind The Counter

Tom Barrett The Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON - Alberta pharmacists have become the first in Canada to
voluntarily restrict access to over-the-counter products commonly used in
illicit labs to create the volatile street drug crystal methamphetamine.

After rejecting the move last year, the pharmacists decided limiting sales
of cold remedies that contain ephedrine and pseudoephedrine can help in the
campaign to stem the growing use of the highly addictive drug.

Products that contain the drugs will now be moved behind the pharmacists'
counters. Customers will be limited to 60 tablets of 60 mg at one time.

"We want Albertans to know that pharmacists are concerned about their
communities," said Tracy Marsden, president of the Alberta College of
Pharmacists. "We have pledged to contribute to solutions to the
methamphetamine problem."

Consumers wanting to obtain the products for legitimate reasons will not be
inconvenienced, she added.

Marsden said the college cannot compel pharmacies to comply but all major
companies have agreed to make the move.

Many of the relevant products, which are mostly decongestants, are also
available in small quantities in grocery stores that don't have pharmacies.

Officials attending a news conference Tuesday where the announcement was
made said the move will not stop major meth dealers from manufacturing the
drug.

But Solicitor General Heather Forsyth, who has been on a personal crusade
to halt the spread of methamphetamines in Alberta, said the announcement
must be seen as one more part of a huge campaign.

"We must continue to tackle this problem from every angle in a co-ordinated
and comprehensive manner," Forsyth said.

Alberta has learned from American states that have been hard hit by meth
use and has gotten an early start in combatting it, she added.

Staff Sgt. Brad Doucette, head of the Edmonton police department's drug
squad, said methamphetamine use is on the rise in the city, along with
related crime.

Doucette said police would like to see federal legal changes that would
allow them to charge people caught with massive amounts of drugs used in
the manufacture of meth.

"Right now, the most we can do is seize the substances and even that can be
challenged in court," he said.

One mother underlined what's at stake in the battle against meth. She
described how she watched helplessly as her beloved 16-year-old son dropped
40 pounds in three months. He became a violent, irrational stranger.

The Edmonton-area mother and her husband were finally forced to kick their
son out of their home and change the locks.

"We lost our son for the most part," she says. "There's no way you can
describe living in fear as a parent. Wondering every night if your son is
dead or alive, if he's going to overdose that night or if he is out on the
streets."

He was arrested for drug possession and through the detoxification program
at the Young Offender's Centre, volunteered for extensive treatment, his
mother explained.

The teenager was fortunate enough to be included in a pilot project that
provides nine-to-12 months of intensive treatment in a residential facility.

"I would say that without the intervention, he would have died," his mother
said.

She called on the government to establish more facilities. She also called
for legal changes that would allow parents to have their drug-addicted
children involuntarily committed for treatment.

"Meth addicts, or I'm sure crack or cocaine addicts, when they are that
young and that addicted, how can they make a voluntary decision to seek
treatment?" she asked.

Forsyth said the province is considering such legislation.

The mother said she didn't know if restricting access to drugs used to make
meth would have prevented her son from becoming an addict but praised the
pharmacist's move.

"We have to start somewhere," she said. "We can't just wait for federal
legislation."

The B.C. College of Pharmacists recently alerted members to the growing
meth problem and told them to watch for people buying large amounts of the
two drugs.