ADOPT REASONABLE LIMITS ON COLD REMEDY SALES

Making it tougher for illegal drug traffickers to manufacture the
addictive stimulant methamphetamine in Wisconsin is a good idea. But
cracking down on meth production by giving central authorities the
power to track the purchase of cold medications by law-abiding
citizens is a threatening prospect.

That is why Wisconsin lawmakers should remove from a package of
anti-methamphetamine legislation a plan to require consumers to show
identification and sign a registry before purchasing the cold
medication pseudoephedrine.

As we have declared before, methamphetamine - also known as meth,
crank, speed, ice, glass and poor man's cocaine - is a scourge that
poses hazards to human health and the environment. It is a highly
addictive drug linked to brain-cell damage and to violent acts. It is
produced in makeshift labs in homes, hotel rooms and abandoned
buildings, as well as some large operations in California and Mexico,
by combining several chemicals dangerous to people and the
environment.

The Midwest, including northern and western Wisconsin, has been a
hotbed of meth production, in part because of the availability of
anhydrous ammonia, a farm fertilizer, and abandoned rural buildings.

It is time for Wisconsin to join other states in taking stronger
action to shut down meth manufacturers.

Legislators this spring have been putting together a package of
legislation to attack meth production. One focus has been
pseudoephedrine, a cold remedy sold over-the-counter under brand names
like Sudafed and Sinutab. Pseudoephedrine is a prime ingredient of
meth. The unrestricted sale of pseudoephedrine is an invitation for
smaller meth manufacturers to buy or shoplift the product to feed their labs.

Some of the restrictions lawmakers have proposed are reasonable. For
example, requiring pseudoephedrine products to be placed behind store
counters or locked in cabinets and limiting the purchase of the
products to two or three packages at a time are reasonable ways to
discourage meth makers.

But also proposed is a requirement that any purchaser of
pseudoephedrine show photo identification and sign a registry. That
restriction is unreasonable.

The goal of the ID requirement and registry is to track purchases to
determine if anyone is buying pseudoephedrine at multiple locations to
accumulate enough for a meth lab. But without an electronic database
capable of tracking purchases across all drug stores, there is no way
to prevent a meth maker from buying at multiple stores. Meth
manufacturers are also likely to evade the restriction with fake IDs
or by using more than one individual to make purchases.

Meanwhile, the ID requirement and registry impose a cost on America's
civil liberties. The registry forces law-abiding consumers to identify
themselves as users of pseudoephedrine, a perfectly legal product. The
result is a curtailing of freedom and invasion of privacy.

Lawmakers ought to ask: Will the consumer who buys a couple of extra
packages of Sudafed to take on a vacation end up under
investigation?

The seriousness of meth production has persuaded several states to
adopt the ID and registry restriction. Illinois, however, rejected the
ID and registry in favor of limits on product display and on the
number of packages sold to any individual. Wisconsin ought to follow
the Illinois model.

The state should make it tougher for meth manufacturers, but lawmakers
should avoid threats to the freedoms of law-abiding consumers.