DRUG, STATE LAW AIM TO CURB METH MAKING

This is an answer to Pfizer Inc.'s plan to release an alternative
decongestant that doesn't contain the ingredient used to make
methamphetamine: It's about time.

We also might say that about a legislative proposal to put the brakes on
making this insidious substance that has become a scourge in many areas of
the nation.

Pseudoephedrine is an active ingredient in Pfizer's Sudafed and Actifed,
Schering Plough's Claritin-D and other cold remedies, but it also can be
used to make meth, which has become a scourge in rural East Tennessee, as
well as other areas across the country.

Pfizer's alternative decongestant, Sudafed PE, contains phenylephrine,
which cannot be converted into meth in homemade labs. Sudafed PE goes on
sale this month, but it's been in some Pfizer products sold in Europe since
2003.

"We have a lot of questions about why this product was not introduced
sooner in Tennessee and look forward to hearing the reasons why," said Will
Pinkston, an aide to Gov. Phil Bredesen.

We would like to know, too. The problems caused by illegal meth labs have
been well documented across the South and the nation for some time. Tom
Farmer, a Hamilton County narcotics officer who works with a regional meth
task force in East Tennessee, said pharmaceutical companies have known that
psudeophedrine was being abused.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration raided about 1,200 clandestine
meth labs in Tennessee between October 2003 and August 2004, an increase of
nearly 400 percent from 2000.

In addition, Tennessee officials removed an estimated 750 children from the
custody of meth abusers last year, an increase from 2003.

In 2002-03, American taxpayers spent more than $37 million on cleaning up
meth labs.

Meth is often manufactured in rural areas because the process creates a
noticeable odor. Officials report, however, that the problem now is
spreading to a number of U.S. cities.

"It's the new major drug threat," said Jim Hall, director of the Center for
the Study and Prevention of Substance Abuse at Nova Southeastern University
in Florida.

"Original Sudafed will still be available, but where sales of
pseudoephedrine are restricted or placed behind the counter, Sudafed PE
will provide consumers with a convenient on-the-shelf decongestant," Pfizer
Vice President Jay Kominsky wrote in a letter to some government and law
enforcement officials.

That may be the primary reason Pfizer is finally moving to provide an
alternative decongestant in the United States: Its other products are being
placed behind the counters in drugstores or they're subject to restrictions.

The legislative package, which is not quite ready to send to the General
Assembly, will include legally putting Sudafed and other products that can
be used to make meth behind pharmacy counters.

A similar law has been successful in Oklahoma, and some Tennessee drug
stores already keep such products either behind the counters or under lock
and key.

While we are pleased that an alternative product is being introduced and
that a comprehensive state law is being proposed, we regret that so many
lives have been disrupted while we awaited these developments.

The adults who abuse meth make a choice, but their poor choices often
impact their families and society in general. However, it's the children -
remember, 750 children were affected just last year - who suffer the most.