LOCAL IMPACT NOT FELT ON NEW ANTI-METH LAW

SANFORD - Consumers are seeing with their own eyes the effects of a
new anti-methamphetamine state law every time they go to the pharmacy.

The law, which took effect in January, requires that all products
containing pseudoephedrine - such as Sudafed - be kept behind the
counter and sold in small amounts.

Pseudoephedrine is a key ingredient in methamphetamine, a potent form
of speed which can be produced in makeshift home "laboratories."

Under the law, which restricts the purchase of more than two or three
packages of any product containing pseudoephedrine, purchasers are
required to sign a log kept behind the counter at each pharmacy.
Purchasers are also required to be 18 years of age, show
identification and restricted from buying more than three packages of
any pseudoephedrine-containing product in a 30-day period.

Although local authorities haven't seen many meth labs in the area,
North Carolina has experienced a growing problem in recent years. In
1999, the first year that meth labs were reported in North Carolina,
State Bureau of Investigation agents discovered nine labs. That
number has skyrocketed, with agents busting 322 labs in 2004 and 328
labs in 2005.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper spent much of 2005 pushing
legislators to pass the law after hearing about 19 other states that
have had success with it. In Oklahoma, authorities reported an 81
percent drop in meth lab seizures since passing a similar law in
2004. Several other states are considering similar legislation.

Both of Sanford's representatives in state government - Rep. John
Sauls, R-Lee and Democratic Sen. Bob Atwater, D-Chatham - voted in
support of the legislation.

Some local pharmacists said the law hasn't had much affect here,
since methamphetamine hasn't been a big problem locally.

Kim Allen, a pharmacist at Kerr Drug on Wicker Street, said his
customers weren't buying many pseudoephedrine-containing products
before the law was passed anyway.

"I'd say people are buying less of it now," Allen said, noting that
"it's much easier to walk up and buy something else without any hassle."

Allen also pointed out that "there are other products with ephedrine
that we don't have to keep behind the counter, like the liquids and
the gel caps."

Pseudoephedrine in liquid and gel cap form cannot be converted into
methamphetamine.

Allen said his chief complaint with the new law is that although
consumers are required to sign a log that details their name,
address, the product they bought and how much they bought, there
doesn't seem to be anything behind it.

"I don't know who's going to check this," he said. "And there's no
real way of telling whether someone (buying
pseudoephedrine-containing products) has already been to another store."