METH FIGHT MOVES PAST U.S. BORDER

WASHINGTON -- The Central Valley's fight against methamphetamine is taking
on a different international cast.

Prompted by growing fears that Canadian companies have become major
suppliers of the valley's illicit meth labs, some lawmakers -- including
Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa -- are pressing Canada to step up its
control of pseudoephedrine.

It is a common ingredient in cold tablets -- and it also is an ingredient
of meth.

Drug agents in the valley have been finding empty bottles, each believed to
have held as many as 23,000 tablets of pseudoephedrine, and investigators
said the bottles appear to be characteristic of Canadian production. Other
Canadian jars hold up to 32,000 tablets.

This week, Radanovich and four other House members introduced a resolution
urging President Bush to "open a dialogue" with Canada and press for
tighter packaging requirements on pseudoephedrine.

"It's really to encourage Canada to change its law, the way the United
States has," Radanovich said of the resolution.

He is set to go to Ottawa on Feb. 18. At meetings with Canadian health and
justice ministers, Radanovich expects to raise concerns about
pseudoephedrine production and its impact on the Central Valley.

"It seemed like the best people to talk to were up there, where the problem
is," Radanovich press secretary Brian Kennedy said Friday.

If it is the start of a dialogue, it may be a long one. The United States
did not change its own packaging laws without a fight, as the
pharmaceutical and retail drug industries worried about burdensome new rules.

Moreover, as U.S. officials have found previously on any number of
diplomatic fronts, other countries do not always welcome foreign
suggestions about domestic laws.

"The economic impact on the legitimate manufacturers will have to be taken
into account," Health Canada spokesman Andrew Swift said Friday.

Health Canada is the government agency responsible for overseeing drug
production. Swift said the agency has been examining proposals to tighten
import, export and packaging requirements. One possibility, he said, is a
reduction in the size of bottles pseudoephedrine can be sold in.

"We've been working on this for almost a year now," Swift said. "We expect
the regulations to be ready in a timely manner."

In March, investigators discovered several 23,000-count pseudoephedrine
bottles at meth lab dump sites in Stanislaus and Fresno counties.

A report prepared by the Central Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking
Area noted that a Modesto narcotics agent had seized dark- brown,
1,000-count bottles of pseudoephedrine labeled in French.

The Central Valley's large meth industry defies borders. The region's meth
labs are controlled by Mexican organized crime syndicates, investigators
say, while the supplies can be sneaked in from lots of places.

"Clandestine methamphetamine laboratory operators are no longer dependent
upon purchasing cases of cold tablets in 60- or 120-count bottles," HIDTA
analysts wrote. "Canadian factory-grade pseudoephedrine is now available in
unlabeled 1,000-, 23,000- or 32,000-count jars."

Any Canadian move to change packaging rules, however, could very well face
the same industry resistance that has periodically surfaced in the United
States. In 1996, for example, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
wanted retail drugstores to monitor and report any pseudoephedrine sales
exceeding 48 grams.

After industry complaints about what one official termed an "unworkable"
proposal, Congress overturned the DEA and permitted easy continued sale of
pseudoephedrine in so-called blister packs.

Subsequently, the government tightened some blister-pack rules.

Many resolutions die quiet deaths. On the other hand, the meth issue
already has rallied a number of lawmakers; 79 House members, from both
parties, belong to the Congressional Caucus to Fight and Control
Methamphetamine.