COLD MEDICINE NEXT TARGET IN DRUG WAR

Cooper Proposes Limits On Popular Remedies That Can Be Used In Illegal Meth
Labs

Attorney General Roy Cooper's first attack on the spread of methamphetamine
labs in North Carolina increased prison time for makers of the illegal drug.

His second crack this year could raise the ire of consumers - and not
necessarily those who use methamphetamines.

Cooper wants to restrict the sale of popular cold and sinus remedies that
contain pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, a key ingredient needed for
home-based manufacturers to cook "meth." He's buoyed by the apparent
success of a similar law in Oklahoma that puts tablet medicines such as
Sudafed, Drixoral and Claritin-D behind a pharmacy counter.

Legislation expected to be filed this week on Cooper's behalf would require
only pharmacists and their assistants to handle and sell these kinds of
medicines. Cooper seems ready to follow the lead of Oklahoma's law, which
forces customers to show a picture ID and sign a log at purchase and limits
the amount that can be sold in a month.

Law-enforcement agencies raided 322 clandestine methamphetamine labs last
year, compared with nine five years before. Eighty already have been shut
down this year.

The Oklahoma law was passed in April, where three troopers died in recent
years during meth-related crimes. Oklahoma law enforcement credits the
sales restrictions to an 80 percent decline in meth-lab seizures in some
parts of the state.

The Oklahoma law bars a person from buying more than 9 grams of
pseudoephedrine during any 30-day period. That equates to about 12 packs of
a 24-count nasal decongestant, with each pill containing 30 milligrams of
the chemical per dose. Few sick people would need that many doses in a
month. It doesn't apply to liquid or liquid-capsule forms of the medicine
because it's difficult to distill pseudoephedrine from them.

Retailers and some pharmacists argue that requiring an on-duty pharmacist
or pharmacy technician to dispense otherwise over-the-counter medications
is too inconvenient.

Patients suffering with allergies or stuffy noses late at night or on the
weekends will have to drive long distances to get medicine because their
neighborhood pharmacy will be closed. Even in Raleigh, there has been only
one 24-hour pharmacy for years.

"We're concerned about the loss of access to what is a very important drug
for many people in terms of colds and other respiratory problems," said
Fred Eckel with the N.C. Association of Pharmacists.

The N.C. Retail Merchants Association is lobbying legislators in opposition
to Cooper's idea even before a bill is filed.

Fran Preston, the association's chief executive, said that meth makers may
go on the Internet or across state lines to buy the drugs without
restrictions. Because so many products have pseudoephedrine, Preston said,
it will be difficult for pharmacists to manage them.