EIGHT MONTHS AFTER NEW COLD TABLET RESTRICTIONS, MADIGAN WANTS MORE

SPRINGFIELD - Eight months after new restrictions on cold tablets took
effect, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan already wants tougher new
laws to curb the state's methamphetamine problem.

Concerns about out-of-state meth users coming to Illinois to load up on
cold tablets containing ephedrine or pseudo-ephedrine, methamphetamine's
main ingredient, has spurred calls to strengthen the law.

"We must keep pace with our neighboring states to ensure that Illinois
doesn't become the meth shopping mall of the Midwest," Madigan told
reporters at a Southern Illinois press conference. Both Iowa and Missouri
have adopted stricter controls.

The state's top lawyer touted Iowa and Oklahoma laws that have put most of
the tablets behind pharmacy counters and require customers to show ID as
well as sign a registry. Oklahoma, the birthplace of pseudoephedrine
control, has shown a 54 percent decline in meth lab seizures from 2003's
1,246 to 669 in 2004

However, Madigan is calling for something similar to Iowa, where
authorities brag of a 70 percent drop in meth lab seizures since the new
law took effect about three months ago.

In Iowa, people must be at least 18 years old to purchase the cold medicine
and customers can only buy 7.5 grams of the drug in a 30-day period. Iowa
also requires liquid and gel cap pseudoephedrine products to be stored
behind the counter.

The specifics of the attorney general's proposal are still being hammered
out but it will be based "largely on the Iowa law," said Melissa Merz, a
Madigan spokeswoman.

The Illinois Retail Merchants Association, a group that has balked at
tougher regulations in the past, is waiting to see what the state will propose.

At the time it was adopted Illinois' current restriction of two packages
per store visit was seen as being amongst the toughest in the nation.
However, it doesn't appear as though it has led to a significant decrease
in lab seizures.

Illinois State Police report that law enforcement have shut down 533 labs
so far this year.

For the same time period in 2004 authorities uncovered 630 operations.

A recent attorney general spot check in 23 counties also raises questions
about how well retailers are enforcing the new law. While Herrin in
Williamson County scored a 100 percent, only 23 percent of Cook County's
Hyde Park and West Side neighborhoods were following the law. Overall, the
statewide compliance rate was reported to be 65 percent.

Restricting access to pseudoephedrine is seen by drug control advocates as
the way of dismantling the toxic labs run by addicts.

Mark Woodward, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Bureau of Narcotics
and Dangerous Drug Control, reports that so far meth lab seizures in his
state have dropped even more since all the surrounding states have adopted
similar controls.

However, Oklahoma law enforcement are seeing meth addicts, who once brewed
their own drugs, start to purchase it from drug dealers, usually associated
with the Mexican drug cartels.

With the decline in meth labs, authorities can now concentrate on attacking
organized drug rings, Woodward said.

"Now opposed to spending eight or 10 hours at guy's house processing a meth
lab (local police) can really start to focus on where drugs are coming
from," he said. "And, they are coming from Mexico."

While specific Oklahoma statistics were not available, Woodward said police
also expect to see an upswing in property crimes as addicts look for ways
to pay for their habit.

"You can cook an ounce of meth for about $43 on your kitchen stove," he
said. "Mexican meth in Oklahoma goes for $800 to $1,000 an ounce. So those
that are continuing their habit are going to have to find money somewhere."

To these possible scenarios playing out in Illinois, Mertz replied: "We
have to address one problem at a time."