KANSAS CONSIDERS BILL TO LIMIT COLD MEDICINE SALES

TOPEKA, KAN., - Kansas lawmakers had before them
on Thursday a proposal that would make the state the only one in the
country where consumers could not buy more than two packages of cold
and flu medicines at a time.

The legislation calls for stiffening penalties against meth producers
and gives added weaponry to law enforcement as well as limits on the
sales of cold medicines, which contain chemicals key to
methamphetamine production.

Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall proposed the law in response to
the overwhelming increase in methamphetamine laboratories around the
state, which ranks as one of the nation's top four methamphetamine
producers according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"We want to make this the most inhospitable place to manufacture
methamphetamine," said Kansas Assistant Attorney General Kyle Smith.

But restricting sales of Sudafed, Tylenol and other popular
over-the-counter remedies for coughs, colds and allergies doesn't sit
well with manufacturers or retailers, who are opposing the measure.

Many industry representatives from around the country travelled to
Topeka to make their feelings known.

"We don't think that the package limit is an effective deterrent,"
said Kevin Kraushaar, director of government relations for the
Nonprescription Drug Manufacturers Association.

"It also puts burdens on families. If you've got a sick family of five
and you go in to buy a combination of medicines, you're in trouble,"
Kraushaar said.

The Kansas House judiciary committee took up the matter Thursday
afternoon.

Many states have strengthened their laws in recent years to deal with
the rise in the production of methamphetamine, a popular, but
dangerous and addictive drug. A federal law was passed in 1996 to
tighten controls and record keeping on bulk sales of the
over-the-counter medicines that can be used in methamphetamine production.

But meth production continues to rise. In Kansas last year, law
enforcement agents said they raided 189 illegal labs, up from 99 such
labs raided in 1997.

"It's like a plague that keeps spreading," said Smith.