NEED COLD MEDICINE? KEEP YOUR ID HANDY

Methamphetamine Concerns Prompt New Safeguards On Certain Medications

Get ready to give up a little bit of your privacy in exchange for
certain allergy or cold medicines.

Starting in late September, just in time for cold season, consumers
will be required to fork over photo IDs and list their home addresses
in logbooks before buying Sudafed, Contac or other remedies
containing the nasal-decongestant pseudoephedrine or similar substances.

Some retailers already are asking for the information, which
law-enforcement officials hope will help them fight the illegal
production of methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug that can be
made, in part, by "cooking" pseudoephedrine.

Consumers in Florida and many other states have grown used to sales
restrictions on pseudoephedrine-containing drugs -- including their
placement behind pharmacy counters instead of on store shelves.

But the latest rules, which also call for limits on purchases of up
to 120 pills a day, are part of a federal effort to combat meth addiction.

Methamphetamine abuse is an increasing problem in the United States,
with a recent report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration saying the number of users admitted to
substance-abuse clinics more than quadrupled from 1993 to 2003. The
problem is particularly acute in rural America, though the Orlando
area also has seen a rise in meth labs.

For instance, last year the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
seized 115 meth labs in Central Florida. In 2000, it seized two.

Tracking sales is critical to stopping the spread of meth labs in
Central Florida, said Stephen Collins, who heads the Orlando office
of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Collins said it was "very common" for meth makers to comb the
region's stores for cold medicine needed to make the illicit drug.

"We had individuals that would canvass up and down Central Florida
and the East Coast and hit numerous stores, buying as much as they
could get their hands on," he said. "By limiting this, we hope to see
the decrease in the number of labs."

The new regulations, passed in March as part of the USA Patriot Act,
are being phased in over the next several months. They are stricter
than Florida law and will override it, the Florida Retail Federation said.

Dawn Townsend, a pharmacist at Maitland Rexall Drug Store, said she
just recently learned about the logbook rule and is in the process of
teaching her staff what to do.

"I don't see it as a hassle," she added.

Industry groups say they expect sales of medicines that contain
pseudoephedrine to decline as a result of the law. Already, drug
makers are selling reformulated cold medicines that don't need to be
placed behind the counter, such as Sudafed PE.

"Most big retailers saw this coming," Walgreen Co. spokeswoman Carol
Hively said.

The rise of meth labs prompted several states, including Florida last
summer, to pass laws restricting sales of pseudoephedrine-containing
medicine. But while consumers may not mind limits on how much cold
medicine they can purchase at one time, they may bristle at giving up
personal information to buy it.

"The question here is, is it the job of pharmacies and pharmacists to
be a policeman on these products [and] what are the privacy
protections for people who legitimately buy these products and have
their name recorded somewhere?" said Arthur Levin, director of the
New York-based Center for Medical Consumers, a nonprofit advocacy group.

Drugstores say measures are in place to prohibit the disclosure of
consumers' private information, which retailers must keep for up to
two years after a sale. The federal law, for instance, prohibits
retailers from disclosing private information except when a legal
request is made by local, state or federal authorities.

"We don't have any intention to use it in any way except to make it
available to the authorities," Walgreen's Hively said.

And helping those authorities fight illegal meth production is why
Lydia McNeil, 60, of Orlando is willing to give up personal
information to buy the Sudafed she uses to treat her colds.

"I wouldn't mind signing anything to keep it out of the hands of the
people who are using it for the wrong reason," she said, after
shopping at a Walgreens on Michigan Avenue in Orlando.

Though the federal law does not provide for a clearinghouse, so
purchases could be tracked from store to store, some retailers are
working on that approach themselves within their chains. Walgreens
and CVS -- two of the nation's biggest drugstore chains -- said they
are developing systems to monitor sales. Wal-Mart says it already
uses an electronic logbook that can track purchases at individual
outlets but not from store to store.

Marianne Myers, 45, who was shopping at an Albertsons on South Orange
Avenue in Orlando, said she understood the motive behind the new
measures but lamented the implications.

"It's probably a hassle for us," the Orlando resident said. "It's sad
that things have to be like that."