STATE MAY TIGHTEN ACCESS TO COLD DRUG

Stores Now Restricting Ingredient Used In Meth

The same over-the-counter capsules that make life bearable for cold
sufferers also make up a portion of the ingredients needed to cook
methamphetamine, an illegal, highly addictive drug also known as
crystal meth, crank, speed and glass.

Nationwide, some public officials are responding by having retailers
restrict the amount of pseudoephedrine -- a key ingredient in
decongestants -- that customers can buy at one time.

Limits vary by state, and Indiana hasn't set a maximum on the amount
of pseudoephedrine customers are allowed to buy. But that could change.

Oklahoma officials cracked down on the problem last year, requiring
stores to put Sudafed and other decongestants behind their pharmacy
counters. To buy NyQuil, Sudafed, Claritin-D or other products,
customers now must talk to a pharmacist, show identification and sign
their name.

The measures seem to be working, according to an Associated Press
report. From April, the last month before the law took effect, until
November, Oklahoma's monthly average number of methamphetamine lab
busts dropped from 105 to 19. Officials this week credited the new law
for the more than 80 percent decline.

Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, Texas and Minnesota are among the
states where legislators are considering adopting their own curbs.

Where no local or statewide standards exist, drug stores typically
follow federal guidelines, limiting customers to 9 grams of
pseudoephedrine. The typical box of cold medicine contains 3 grams.

Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS Pharmacy follows the 9-gram guide in its
northeast Indiana stores. Managers of stores in this area are allowed
to decide whether to make cold medicine accessible to everyone or to
put it behind the pharmacy counter or inside a locked case, depending
on the neighborhood's crime rate, spokesman Mike DeAngelis said.

Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreens decided in the summer of 2002 to
voluntarily limit sales of products with pseudoephedrine to 6 grams in
areas without state or local limits, spokeswoman Tiffani Bruce said.
Walgreens managers also are allowed to decide where and how to display
the medicine.

"We definitely see that we have a responsibility, and we're concerned
about the problem," Bruce said.

The size of that problem is staggering, according to data provided by
the Indiana State Police. In 1999, law enforcement officials found
only one methamphetamine lab in the 11 counties that make up northeast
Indiana. Just five years later, in 2004, officials found 183 labs in
those same counties, including 69 in Noble alone. Statewide lab
seizures totaled 1,549.

At the same time officials are trying to limit access to
methamphetamine ingredients such as pseudoephedrine, Walgreens and
other drug stores are in business to sell cold medicine to those who
legitimately need it.

Marie DeWeese, a Warren mother of six, said she's lucky that her four
children still living at home tend to be healthy. She can see,
however, how buying limits could inconvenience other large families,
especially when they are trying to stock up on cold medicine when it's
on sale.

The real question is whether that inconvenience is significant enough
to slow down the production of methamphetamine.

An older man I once knew liked to say, "Locks are there to keep the
honest people out." He knew that crooks wouldn't hesitate to jimmy
that lock, cut through a window screen or kick in the back door if
they really wanted to break into a house.

The same principle holds true for pseudoephedrine. The buying limits
now being practiced in northeast Indiana don't stop crooks from making
methamphetamine. Far from it.

They can walk across the street and buy cold capsules from a
competitor. They can drive down the road and buy medicine from one or
more other locations of the same chain. They can return to the same
location every four or eight or 24 hours. No, the average customer
won't go to that much trouble.

But the average customer isn't a drug addict.