Copyright: 2004 The Dallas Morning News
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STORES RESTRICT SALES OF SOME COLD MEDS TO FIGHT METH

Tablets Containing Pseudoephedrine Now Sold From Pharmacies

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Drug stores across Oklahoma have begun removing cold
medications with the ingredient pseudoephedrine from their shelves and
placing them behind the pharmacy counter after state lawmakers restricted
sales of the drug used in the manufacture of methamphetamine. Mika Smith,
manager of Liberty Drug in Chickasha, said Friday that the store had
already moved its stock of the cold pills.

Ms. Smith praised the new regulations but said her store was already wary
of pseudoephedrine sales.

"We've regulated it anyway," Ms. Smith said. "If someone comes in and wants
five boxes of pseudoephedrine, we explain to them that we have to monitor
that. And we've been doing that for years."

The Legislature passed the bill's emergency clause, meaning it takes effect
immediately. The law also requires customers to show a driver's license or
state-issued photo identification and sign for their purchase.

Oklahoma is the first state to place such stringent rules on
pseudoephedrine sales.

"It'll be an extra step, but if it's going to help clean up some of the
extra junk out there, I think it'll be worth it," Ms. Smith said.

Stores with pharmacies will have 60 days to make sure all the cold
medications are behind the counter or locked up and to create a logging
procedure for the signatures, addresses, and products sold, said John
Duncan of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

Convenience stores and other locations without pharmacies have 30 days to
dispose properly of the pills they have in stock. Convenience stores can no
longer sell pseudoephedrine tablets if they do not have a pharmacist.

Medicines including Sudafed and Claritin-D have pseudoephedrine as an
ingredient.

Mr. Duncan said authorities were trying to inform stores of the new policy
and planned to work with them to enforce the law.

"We're trying to get these guys on board instead of just rushing out and
arresting people," Mr. Duncan said.

The law does not apply to gel capsules, liquid capsules or other liquid
preparations of pseudoephedrine.

Pseudoephedrine tablets can easily be used to make methamphetamine.

"If you can bake a cake, you can cook meth," Mr. Duncan said.

He said he has spoken to officials from California, Illinois, Iowa,
Missouri, Kansas, Louisiana and Arkansas who want to mimic Oklahoma's law
for their state.

Carol Hively, a spokeswoman for Walgreen Co., based in Deerfield, Ill.,
said the drugstore chain has developed a system to make sales of the
medicine simpler for customers.

Ms. Hively said the 62 Walgreens stores in Oklahoma will place tags on the
shelves showing pictures of the packages that used to sit there.

Customers will be able to tear off the tags, printed in English and
Spanish, and take them to a pharmacist to retrieve their cold medicine.

"We don't know what customer reaction will be," she said.