ON A METH TREK . . .

Sudafed. And plenty of it.

Check.

Iodine tincture - as many bottles as are on the shelf.

Check.

Matchbooks.

Check.

Camp fuel.

Check.

Acetone.

Check . . .

Within a half-hour, a KTW reporter was able to purchase all of these
products, and was on her way to having just about everything she
needed to whip up a batch of crystal methamphetamine.

Earlier this week, B.C. Solicitor General John Les announced a plan to
more closely monitor bulk sales of pseudoephedrine - the main active
ingredient in cold medications like Sudafed.

Without psuedoephedrine, crystal meth does not exist.

Days after the news of the program, Kamloops This Week tested three
local shops.

The first shop, Wal-Mart, was one of the only stores in town that
could potentially carry all the items needed to manufacture the drug.

There's the pharmacy with plenty of cold medicine. There are
matchbooks, from which meth-heads, or those making the drug, peel off
the strike pad to acquire the needed red phosphorus.

Then there's the Coleman's Fuel, the muriatic acid found in any store
near the paint thinners, acetone, denatured alcohol, tubing and PVC
connectors - not to mention the pots in which crystal meth is cooked.

With a basket full of similar items, including six packs of Sudafed,
this reporter sailed through the checkout.

Total? $67.

On to the next store. At London Drugs, the story was a bit
different.

While the reporter managed to clear the pharmacy shelf of Sudafed and
iodine, had she tried to pay for the drugs, an alert would have sounded.

London Drugs president Wynne Powell said that over a year ago, most
stores moved Sudafed behind the counter and programed a prescription
alert into the store's cash registers, instructing the teller to call
for a pharmacy consult should a customer attempt to buy more than four
packages of the drug.

"We've been very proactive," Powell said.

"Crystal meth is an absolute scourge."

But Powell is convinced that, for the most part, if someone wants to
manufacture the drug, they'll be buying the pseudoephedrine in bulk -
not box by box.

As for Wal-Mart, a month from now it will be tough to buy more than a
couple of boxes of Sudafed, said corporate spokesman Kevin Groh.

"We're actually in the midst of rolling out a program whereby
nationwide our stock of those items would be regulated."

Wal-Mart will soon move all of its products that contain high
quantities of pseudoephedrine behind the counter.

When the consumer wishes to buy a package, they'll find a "product
card" on the shelf, and will have to bring that card to the pharmacist
to receive the merchandise.

Groh complains there has been "a lack of firm guidance to retailers"
from the federal government.

"We took it upon ourselves to create a program."

But regulating the sale of readily available products is problematic,
Groh said.

"We are a retailer and we are in the business of selling people
merchandise. By no means do we want to be policing our customers."

With the new program, however, though the company can't guarantee that
drug manufactures can't get their hands on pseudoephedrines, "at least
it would involve a conversation."

Meanwhile, at Pratt's Pharmacy downtown, pharmacist Murray Pratt
didn't hesitate to question the sale of several boxes of Sudafed.

"What in God's name do you need with this much cold medicine?" he
asked this reporter.

Pratt said he's well aware of the need to keep tabs on products
containing pseudoephedrine.