DRUG LIMIT NOTHING TO SNEEZE AT

Want to buy cold medicine for you and your child at the Walgreens in Frayser?

Be forewarned that you might get caught in a tug-of-war between
well-intentioned efforts to deter drug dealers and an innocent attempt to
stop a runny nose.

A week ago a co-worker tried to buy a bottle of Dimetapp syrup for her son
and a box of 12 Tylenol Cold pills for herself at the store on Thomas.

"Exceeding drug limit," read the cash register.

The store's manager (who wasn't available for comment) said my colleague
couldn't buy both medicines because they contain pseudoephedrine, the main
ingredient in the addictive and illegal drug methampethamine.

Never mind that it'd take 1,000 pills to make a single ounce of meth.

Never mind that Walgreens' corporate policy prohibits the sale of products
containing more than six grams of pseudoephedrine - and what my colleague
tried to buy contained less than 1.5 grams.

"You've got too many drugs here," the manager said.

Three hours later, she went to a Bartlett Walgreens and bought the Dimetapp
and a 24-pill box of Tylenol Cold. No cash register alerts, no awkward talk
with the manager.

Tennessee accounts for 75 percent of meth lab seizures in the Southeast, so
the vigilance is warranted.

But there must be a balance that accommodates law-abiding citizens with the
sniffles and, at the same time, clamps down on drug dealers buying 25 boxes
of Sudafed.

Meth, says Richard Sojourner of the Memphis Police Department's organized
crime unit, is worse than crack. It's cheaper, produces a longer high and
more violent, paranoid addicts.

Police busted a suspected meth lab in Frayser in July, but the drug reaches
much farther.

"We've found (labs) in cars, driving down the street, we've found them in
motel rooms, abandoned houses," Sojourner says.

In Shelby County, police found 50 meth labs last year, and 38 so far this
year. Statewide, police found 868 labs last year, and 972 to date this year.

Unlike 11 other states, including Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky
and Missouri, Tennessee has no law that regulates the sale of pseudoephedrine.

That could change. Last week Gov. Phil Bredesen's task force on meth abuse
issued several recommendations, including making it illegal to sell or have
more than three packs of drugs containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine.

"There would be restrictions placed on everyone, every neighborhood, every
community, black, brown, regardless of income or ethnicity," says Will
Pinkston, the governor's liaison to the task force.

As a rule, I'm for fewer laws and smaller government, but in this case, a
uniform policy, free from the whims of stores that don't follow their own
rules, is overdue.

At the least, cold sufferers in Frayser would be guaranteed some relief.