THE DRUG TRADE AFFECTS US ALL

The ingenuity of illegal drug manufacturers and drug users continues to
threaten the existence of products that Americans have used safely for years.

For example, it's a lot more difficult these days to find Crystal Drano,
the drainpipe cleaner. Sure, an alternative is available - Liquid Drano -
but the crystal product just seems to work better.

Unfortunately, Crystal Drano is one of the ingredients used to make crystal
methamphetamine, an unusually addictive concoction that has wreaked havoc
in many rural communities across the nation. Many stores won't stock
Crystal Drano, choosing not to contribute, however unwittingly, to the drug
trade.

You can't blame stores for this decision. But it sure is frustrating to the
average customer.

Another ingredient of crystal meth is pseudoephedrine, a drug common in
decongestants and other cold remedies. Pfizer Inc., one of the world's
largest drug manufacturers, has come up with an alternative medication of
its popular Sudafed brand that does not have the ingredient used to make
crystal meth.

Pfizer, however, is being criticized by officials in Tennessee, who note
that the alternative medicine, known as Sudafed PE, has been available in
Europe since 2003. The Tennessee people, frustrated by the growing
popularity of meth labs in the state, want to know why the new medicine is
only now being introduced there.

Sudafed PE will go on sale in the United States in February. The original
Sudafed will still be available, but in communities that have restricted
the sale of medicines containing pseudoephedrine, customers will have to
ask for it at pharmacy counters.

Those among us who don't make, sell or use meth have a right to be annoyed
that the illegal habits of others are making it more difficult to get their
preferred medicine or drain cleaner. That said, there is evidence that
restricting the availability of such products has been successful at
strangling the illicit drug trade.

In Oklahoma, for example, officials put medicine with pseudoephedrine
behind counters, and that helped lead to an 80 percent decline in meth lab
seizures. Tennessee's governor has said he'd like to see the same thing
happen in his state, as it leads the nation in meth lab seizures and
accounts for a whopping three-quarters of such seizures across the South.