MAKING METH: VOLUNTARY CONTROLS ON LEGAL OTC DRUG SALES ARE BETTER

Arkansas lawmakers are contemplating restrictions on the sale of some over-the-counter cold preparations because an ingredient in these medications - pseudoephedrine - is a basic element in the manufacture of illegal methamphetamine.

What Arkansas lawmakers propose is to restrict the sale of these medications containing pseudoephedrine to prescription only, or to require buyers to sign for these medications and for businesses to limit the amount a consumer can obtain with one purchase.

When considering the social and economic impact of this illegal drug in Arkansas-some 554 meth labs were busted in 1999, with estimates of another 800 this year-doing whatever is necessary to curb unrestricted purchase of these drugs sounds like a good idea.

But what a proposal like this is more likely to do is anger and inconvenience law-abiding consumers and merely force meth makers to get their goods elsewhere. And of course, in a place like Texarkana, that will be as easy as crossing the state line into Texas.

Proponents can expect boisterous opposition from the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture these OTC drugs as well because the companies fear that sales will decline if barriers are erected to control purchases of these widely available and legal drugs.

This is not to say that all elements of such a proposal won't work. It's pretty obvious that someone who is buying these drugs by the case is not doing so for personal health reasons. When someone buys this stuff in wholesale lots, there should be some mechanism of recording the purchase and notifying authorities, which won't require a significant amount of paperwork because most consumers simply won't be making purchases of this magnitude.

What may work best, and what won't be such a burden to conscientious consumers, is voluntary restrictions on the sale of over-the-counter drugs containing pseudoephedrine and for the law enforcement community to enforce to the fullest extent any criminal charges resulting in possession of these preparations with the intent to manufacture an illegal drug.

At some point the methamphetamine epidemic in Arkansas-the state leads the nation in the number of meth labs uncovered-it may become necessary to impose legal restrictions on the sale of these cold preparations if voluntary measures are insufficient to stem the transition of a legal product into an illicit drug. Voluntary compliance is much more likely to be palatable than forced restrictions that may or may not work, but certainly will impede consumers' efforts to obtain what is a legal-and often a very essential-health remedy.

Limiting the legal and potentially illegal uses of a drug may well impinge on the free will of a law-abiding society, but sometimes sacrifices must be made if we are to be entirely serious about eradicating illegal drugs in Arkansas.