CRACKDOWN ON SALES OF COLD REMEDIES PLANNED IN CAMPAIGN AGAINST METH LABS

Attorney General Roy Cooper's statewide campaign to fight the spread
of methamphetamine labs could change the way North Carolinians shop
for cold medicine.

North Carolina is moving to join a growing number of states cracking
down on methamphetamine dealers by limiting sales of cold tablets,
putting them behind counters, or training store clerks to spot
"suspicious" shoppers and report them to the police.

Drug dealers buy over-the-counter cold remedies, nasal decongestants
and asthma medicines for their active ingredients, ephedrine or
pseudoephedrine. A 48-tablet pack of Sudafed yields methamphetamine
worth about $72 on the street, according to police.

States with acute methamphetamine problems, such as Missouri and
California, limit purchasers to two or three packs. Several other
states have programs encouraging retailers to limit purchases
voluntarily.

In North Carolina, some drug and grocery stores voluntarily limit
purchases to three packs in keeping with guidelines from the Drug
Enforcement Administration. But other stores don't, prompting Cooper
to organize a statewide initiative to train retailers to limit access
and to watch for suspicious consumers.

Details aren't expected until spring, but the plan would be modeled on
the federally financed Meth Watch in Kansas, said Fran Preston, the
president of the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association and a
member of the committee organizing the plan and looking for financing.

The program would provide stores with training videos and break-room
posters instructing employees to watch for customers who load up on
cold pills or act suspiciously in the aisles, she said. The program
also would give store employees "a process by which they notify law
enforcement," she said.

To alert honest customers that they're being watched and to intimidate
meth-makers, the Kansas program supplies stores with Meth Watch decals
that retailers hang on their shelves.

Store employees also keep an eye on 21 other products that meth
dealers use, from brake cleaner and coffee filters to lithium
batteries and Heet gasoline additives. A shopper buying some of those
products in combination can raise suspicion, said T.J. Ciaffone, a
manager of the Kansas Meth Watch program.

"If you're going to buy just batteries, I don't think you're going to
get anybody looking at you suspiciously," Ciaffone said. "But let's
say I bought a pack of batteries, three bottles of Heet and my three
packs of pseudoephedrine. The retailer, if they're trained, should go,
'Oops, well, they're partying this weekend.'"

Though false alarms occur, he said, there is rarely a good reason for
a consumer to buy multiple packs. "If you have a cold, buy a pack, get
over your cold," he said. "I don't see the need to buy a case."