METH FIGHT CENTERS ON INGREDIENT IN COLD DRUGS

Police and prosecutors in Missouri and Illinois say it's time for
tough measures in their fight against the increasing production of the
illegal drug methamphetamine.

One of their targets is a little pill many people take to relieve the
common cold.

Across the Midwest, anti-meth crusaders are drawing attention to
pseudoephedrine. It's an active ingredient in more than 80
over-the-counter cold remedies and an essential ingredient in most
recipes for meth, a powerful stimulant often called ice, crystal or
crank.

Police contend that easy access to pseudoephedrine pills - which are
sold everywhere from gas stations to grocery stores - has contributed
to an explosive increase in small meth labs throughout the nation's
heartland. Most of the nation's meth is made at a small number of
"super labs" in Mexico and California. But Missouri and the states it
borders accounted for more than half of the meth-lab raids and related
seizures last year.

Although meth also can be made using the chemicals ephedrine and
phenyl-2-propanone, those ingredients are closely monitored and tough
to get in significant quantities. Police say most of the meth made at
Midwestern labs comes from pseudoephedrine, legally bought by
small-time meth-lab operators.

Last week, the Oklahoma Senate unanimously approved legislation that
would label most pseudoephedrine remedies "scheduled narcotics," sold
only at pharmacies and only if customers agree to have the purchases -
and their identities - recorded in a statewide database. The bill has
the support of the governor. It would become the nation's toughest
state law governing a meth ingredient.

Iowa's Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack proposed similar restrictions this
year, but legislators rejected the idea. Lawmakers in Minnesota this
month voted down a ban on pseudoephedrine sales to minors, and scaled
back other proposed regulations. In both states, supporters of the
measures said the efforts were defeated after heavy lobbying by
industry groups representing pharmaceutical companies and retailers.
Opponents say the regulations are an inconvenience to consumers and
offer no lasting solution to the meth problem.

The leading manufacturer of pseudoephedrine products believes that the
proposed restrictions in Oklahoma are misguided.

"I'm not sure that legislators understood they're basically putting
the entire cold aisle behind the counter," said Jay Kosminsky, a
spokesman for Pfizer Inc., the manufacturer of Sudafed cold remedies.
"The fact is this is going to get between sick people and their medicines."

Backers of tough restrictions don't dispute that. One Southern
Illinois prosecutor says reducing the number of meth labs - and the
related injuries suffered by addicts, their children and the police
who raid the environmentally toxic labs - should be a more important
public health priority. Wayne County, Ill., State's Attorney Kevin
Kakac said he wants Illinois to be the first state to make
pseudoephedrine a prescription product.

"Would it be unfortunate for the common hay fever sufferer? I guess
so," Kakac said. "But when you compare it to the price we're paying
for the meth scourge, it may be worth it."

Kakac said that despite a national reduction in crime, the number of
felonies he prosecutes has nearly doubled since the late 1990s. He
blames the highly addictive meth and the abundant supply of its
ingredients. He said addiction to the drug can eventually turn meth
users into meth cooks.

Illinois has no state laws governing the sale of meth-ingredient cold
pills.

Missouri last year toughened existing regulations on how much
pseudoephedrine a store could sell to an individual customer, and
added new restrictions on where those cold pills could be displayed.
Drug investigators say those laws do little to curb the drug's
production. Nothing prevents meth cooks from visiting dozens of stores
to get the thousands of pills needed to make even a few ounces of meth.

Several books offer meth recipes, and others are found on the
Internet. Many recipes share an ingredient list that can be filled
legally in an afternoon of shopping. The sole ingredient that is
difficult to buy - the farm fertilizer anhydrous ammonia - can be
easily stolen, and not every recipe calls for it.

As a result, lawmakers have honed in on pseudoephedrine as the one
ingredient essential to nearly all recipes. But the architect of
Missouri's current cold-pill restrictions, Franklin County Sheriff's
Detective Jason Grellner, said they do little to curb the supply of
meth. Grellner said he will advocate a law similar to the Oklahoma
legislation - if not an even stricter one - next month at a statewide
meth summit in Kansas City.

Grellner said the issue came up recently at a high school in Sullivan,
where he was talked about the dangers of meth.

"This little girl in the ninth grade asks me, 'If everyone makes meth
from pseudoephedrine, why doesn't the government ban it?'" Grellner
said. "Out of the mouths of babes."

More colds or more meth?

The Drug Enforcement Administration says the amount of pseudoephedrine
legally imported by drug companies has increased from 544,227 pounds
in 1990 to 1,512,782 pounds last year, a 178 percent increase.

The DEA says much of that increase might be explained by an increase
in legitimate use, both by cold sufferers and by drug companies that
are using pseudoephedrine in products that used to include more
regulated chemicals.

Many in law enforcement argue that increase is a result of the
proliferation of meth labs, particularly in the Midwest.

"The fact is there aren't that many more sniffles now than 10 years
ago," said John Duncan, chief agent for the Oklahoma Bureau of
Narcotics. He said that what he saw as the legal drug industry's
unwillingness to act - even in the wake of a high-profile, videotaped
killing of a Oklahoma state trooper by a meth cook - forced the state
to act.

"If we leave it to the industry to regulate themselves, they won't do
a damned thing except reap more profits," Duncan said.

Kosminsky, the Pfizer spokesman, said the company is working to
develop pseudoephedrine medications that can't easily be converted
into meth. But, he said, "the science just isn't there yet ... and
it's tough to know how close we are."

A growing number of drug investigators say cutting off the supply of
pseudoephedrine will make it virtually impossible for most criminals
to make meth. But it's not likely that federal authorities will add
more restrictions on the retail sales of the cold pills.

In 2002, Rep. Marion Berry, D-Ark., introduced legislation that would
have made pseudoephedrine available only by prescription. Berry is a
pharmacist-turned-politician who said the move would hurt meth cooks.
The bill died in committee.

On the federal level, White House drug czar John Walters said the Bush
administration won't propose new federal restrictions on the retail
sale of pseudoephedrine.

Walters said that pseudoephedrine offers "an enormous, legitimate
benefit" and that there's no reason to inconvenience people in states
where meth production isn't a problem. But Walters said the White
House doesn't object to states developing their own restrictions on
cold pills.

The Oklahoma House is expected to vote on the proposed restrictions
this week. Gov. Brad Henry, a Democrat, is so confident that an
official said he has set the bill signing for April 5.

Grellner said he hopes such a law in Oklahoma would spur Missouri,
Illinois and eventually the federal government into passing similar
laws.

"This is just like dominoes. If one state does it, Missouri and some
others are going to follow suit. And then, Washington is going to have
to step in with a federal standard," he said. "After all, meth isn't a
problem that's going away."