PANEL CRAFTS METH LIMITS

RALEIGH - Lawmakers are trying to square consumer rights with public safety
in a bill that would cut off methamphetamine at its source.

Cold and allergy medicines that contain pseudoephedrine would be pulled
from store shelves and placed behind the pharmacy counter under a bill that
was revised in a committee last week.

The legislation has passed the Senate.

A special House committee, headed by Rep. Rick Glazier of Fayetteville,
worked on a compromise bill last week. The bill is expected to be finalized
Tuesday and moved to the House floor for a vote by the end of the week.

"This is probably one of the most complex issues I've had to work on,
crafting a bill that meets multiple public interests,'' Glazier said.

Pseudoephedrine is a key ingredient in methamphetamine, which can be
produced with a combination of easily accessible household and farming
products.

While it is sometimes imported, more and more it is being cooked in crude,
homemade drug labs.

The production creates a volatile mix of chemicals that can explode or
cause severe respiratory problems for drug addicts, their children and the
firefighters and police who raid the labs.

Meth production was mostly a Midwestern problem until states there began
tightening their controls on pseudoephedrine. In the last two years, the
profusion of labs has spread through Tennessee, Kentucky and into North
Carolina.

Ten states have legislation similar to what North Carolina is considering.
Each has seen a drop in the number of lab busts with the law.

According to the Attorney General's Office, North Carolina had more than
300 methamphetamine labs raided last year, the majority of them in the
mountains.

Sampson County holds the record for the largest number of lab busts east of
Interstate 95. There were seven there last year.

Attorney General Roy Cooper said the problem is growing here, and the
pseudoephedrine bill is crucial to stopping it before it gets out of hand.

But consumer advocates say the bill poses a number of problems for
retailers, pharmacists and shoppers. And they question whether it will have
the effect its supporters contend.

They say the evidence in the other states is too recent to base any
legislation on, and the new restrictions will take important choices away
from consumers.

Mike Ayotte, a government relations liaison for CVS, said his stores each
stock 268 products that contain pseudoephedrine. In states where the
legislation has passed, that number has dropped to 40.

"From the very beginning of this debate it's been about maintaining
consumer access to products throughout North Carolina,'' said Andy Ellen,
general counsel and lobbyist for the North Carolina Retail Merchants
Association.

The original Senate version of the bill would have restricted the products
to pharmacies. But lawmakers in rural districts where there are few
pharmacies said the medicine needed to be accessible in grocery stores and
convenience stores.

Surveillance equipment

Ellen also has concerns about the cost of the video surveillance equipment
for some small businesses. And with the shortage of pharmacists in the
state, he said they shouldn't be burdened with the additional
responsibility of having to dispense over-the-counter cold medicines.

Customer service desks and pharmacy counters are also crowded, he said,
which means stores would have to build accommodations for the additional
products and scale back their product lines.

"For me, I have one product that works well for me, and now you're telling
me that I'll have to go find which store sells that?'' Ellen said. "I think
you take away some of that customer base.''

Ellen suggested North Carolina implement less stringent regulations like
Georgia or Florida, which have passed laws putting only the most pure
pseudoephedrine products in the pharmacy.

Glazier said that however the bill is written, it has to be strong enough
to deter meth production. He said too many children are being orphaned by
the drug, and too many neighborhoods are being ruined by the labs.

"A single meth lab can have devastating effects on firefighters, police and
families,'' he said. "We're already seeing the incredible social welfare
costs.''