THE WRONG FIX FOR METH LABS

Each time a proposal comes along that would diminish our privacy to
further a social good, society's job is to ask whether that good
outweighs another stricture on our lives. A proposed state database
to track our purchases of various cold and allergy remedies is
designed to cut down on illegal methamphetamine manufacture -- a
well-intentioned attempt to fight back at a drug that has become a
law enforcement nightmare. But this legislation is unlikely to
achieve enough benefits to make its downsides worthwhile.

Assembly Bill 1455 would require people to sign an electronic log and
provide identification each time they want to buy pseudoephedrine or
any of a host of other medications that can be used to manufacture
methamphetamine. Stores would receive instant alerts on customers who
already had purchased their legal limit and would be prohibited from
selling them more.

Pseudoephedrine, better known by the brand name Sudafed, already is
kept behind the drugstore counter in California, though no
prescription is required for it. Pharmacists are supposed to keep a
written record of transactions, including buyers' identifying
information, but not all of them do. And meth lab operators have
skirted the law by sending crews of buyers to different stores to
stock up on the medications.

AB 1455 would make things harder for clandestine meth manufacturers,
but just as they have with the current law, many would find ways
around this one. They might recruit a larger network of buyers or buy
from contacts in areas where laws are looser. Worse, they might
expand into identity theft so that each buyer could make more
purchases. It's also unclear to what extent law enforcement would
track the purchases of law-abiding citizens and whether and when they
might find themselves being questioned about their pseudoephedrine
consumption. That's not a trivial worry: An Indiana woman was
arrested in July after she legitimately bought two different cold
medications within a week for her husband and adult daughter. The
potential for hacking of the database is another concern.

The number of meth superlabs -- dangerous operations that use barrels
of toxic materials -- has fallen dramatically nationwide in recent
years. Most of the illegal methamphetamine sold in this country is
manufactured in Mexico. AB 1455 targets the "one-pot" operations in
which people make small amounts of the highly addictive drug for
personal consumption or sale to a few others. Tighter restrictions
might somewhat reduce the number of small operators, but would not
significantly reduce methamphetamine use. The potential downsides for
law-abiding consumers outweigh the theoretical advantages of the
proposed database.