EASLEY SIGNS LAW RESTRICTING SALE OF METH INGREDIENT

Tablets, Caplets With Pseudoephedrine Will Be Sold From Behind the Counter

Allergy and cold sufferers who want to buy tablets that contain
pseudoephedrine after Jan. 15 will have to buy their cold medicine
from behind the pharmacy counter under a law signed by Gov. Mike
Easley yesterday.

The law is part of an effort to combat the spread of illegal
methamphetamine, which has swept into North Carolina from the west in
recent years, and particularly into Watauga, Ashe, Rutherford and
McDowell counties.

Pseudoephedrine, one of the main ingredients in meth, is also a main
ingredient in Sudafed and other popular cold medicines.

"I know it's a small inconvenience to the consumers," Easley said.
"However, this small inconvenience to consumers is a tremendous
benefit to the public - and to first responders.

"North Carolina is now a zero-tolerance state for methamphetamine," he
said.

Modeled on a law in Oklahoma, the new law will limit purchases of
tablets and caplets containing pseudoephedrine to two packages at a
time, and no more than three packages within 30 days without a
prescription.

Buyers must be at least 18 and show photo identification. They will
have to sign a log that authorities hope to use to track buyers who
travel from pharmacy to pharmacy to buy supplies.

"If the criminals can't get the key ingredient, they can't make the
meth," Attorney General Roy Cooper said after Easley signed the bill.

Although some retailers questioned the new requirements, backers of
the bill were able to win legislative approval because "we were able
to shift the debate away from concern about sniffles to a concern
about children" and their exposure to illegal meth labs, Cooper said.

Easley said that the number of raids on illegal meth labs has
increased significantly in the state, growing from nine in 1999 to 322
last year and 263 so far this year.

"The byproducts of methamphetamine are very dangerous," he said. "They
create fires, explosions. They contaminate well water, sewer systems -
they put first responders at risk."

Liquid and gel forms of pseudoephedrine can remain on store shelves
outside the pharmacy, but the new law gives the N.C. Commission for
Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services
the power to move them behind the pharmacy counter if meth-makers find
ways to use those forms.

So far "we have not seen any meth in North Carolina made from liquids
and gels," Cooper said.

Critics have suggested that if states ban sales of pseudoephedrine,
they will only push labs to other states or invite an increased flow
of contraband pseudoephedrine or methamphetamine from Mexico.

Cooper voiced support for a national standard on sales of meth
ingredients.

"We've asked Congress for stronger limits on the federal level,
including a ban on Internet sales," he said, noting that some sellers
have tried to sell pseudoephedrine on eBay.

But he said that any federal law should not pre-empt stronger state
laws. "We want to pass a law with national standards, but not to
prevent states from making them stronger," he said.

The new law attempts to limit the supply for meth labs, which often
require 45 to 50 law-enforcement or emergency personnel in a raid. But
limiting the supply to those labs could free police to concentrate on
drug traffickers, Cooper said.

"If we keep the main ingredient from these labs ... then we can use
the resources to go after drug trafficking," he said.

Cooper said that many larger stores with pharmacy counters - including
Target, Wal-Mart and Rite Aid - have already begun moving
pseudoephedrine tablets behind the pharmacy counter.

"So many of these stores are already doing this that we just haven't
heard any complaints," he said.

But he did acknowledge that convenience and grocery stores that don't
have pharmacies would lose their sales of the tablets.

"That's the whole idea, because that's where (criminals) were getting
the tablets," he said.

Andy Ellen, the general counsel for the N.C. Retail Merchants
Association, said that stores intend to comply with the new law, and
many that have already seen similar laws in other states already have
moved products like Sudafed behind the pharmacy counter.

But he said that some store owners are upset because they have limited
storage space in pharmacies.

"The question becomes, do you want me to carry the antibiotic in that
spot, or do I carry the Tylenol Cold and Sinus?" Ellen said.

And owners of small stores, in particular, will have to decide whether
it's worth the risk to carry cold medicines at all.

"If I mess up, I get up to a $500 fine for a first offense," Ellen
said. "At some point I look at it and have to make a business
decision.... I have to sell a lot of that cold medicine to pay a $500
fine."

The state needs to quickly develop a training program for store
workers, he said.

"We're heading into our busiest season with the cold and flu season
coming, and we can't have this training program dropped in our lap,"
he said.

The limits on pseudoephedrine could simply invite more imported
illegal drugs from California and Mexico, Ellen said.

"I hope we don't think this is a silver bullet to solve the meth
problem," he said. "It's a much bigger problem."