STORES ON ALERT FOR MATERIALS

If you needed hydrogen peroxide, matches or cold medicine, you'd probably
head to your local grocery or drug store and buy the needed items.

People wanting to make the drug methamphetamine are doing just that --
heading to local stores to buy large quantities of cold medicine with
ephedrine or sudaphedrine, matches that contain red sulfur and all the
other household supplies that can be turned into the powerful stimulant.
Because the ingredients are so common and meth can be brewed up at home,
police and some stores, acting alone or sometimes together, are doing what
they can to limit the creation of the drug.

Some stores, like Wal-Mart, have policies limiting the number of packages
of cold medicine that can be sold and have active relationships with law
enforcement.

Others, like Target and Kroger, are looking into creating policies but
don't have one and aren't actively working with police.

No representatives from Rite Aid were immediately available, but police
said that the store limits the number of packages of cold medicine
containing ephedrine that it sells.

Rob Phillips, a spokesman for Wal-Mart said the corporation has a policy
that applies to all of its 2,800 stores.

Sales of certain cough, cold and diet pills that contain ephedrine or
sudephedrine are limited to three packages, he said.

"Say a customer wanted to buy 15 packages of Sudafed -- when the cashier
scans it, it shows that sales are restricted. The customer would be able to
purchase three (boxes) and not any more," he said.

The stores also have safeguards meant to prevent people from leaving with
three packages and immediately returning to buy more.

"Our cashiers and all of our associates are trained to watch for suspicious
purchases. If a cashier or another associate sees a number of customers
coming back in and buying the same thing, the management would contact
local authorities and get them involved," Phillips said.

"We are not being overbearing on our customers," he added. "The vast
majority of our customers are honest, hard working great members of the
community."

Target store manager Steve Milby, said the store on U.S.119 had an
agreement with local law enforcement, but the partnership was ended.

"People buy that stuff every day and we are not the ones to stop them," he
said.

The chief of detectives for the South Charleston Police Department, Lt.
G.E. Amburgey said, "It's not that they (Target) are not cooperating with
us; it is that they are not allowed to tip us off."

He said that there had been an agreement in place but that was terminated
after there were some problems at the store. Neither he nor store
management would elaborate on those problems.

Archie Fralin, the public relations manager from Kroger Mid-Atlantic, said
his store complies with a federal law that restricts retailers on the
amount of ephedrine products that can be shipped to any one location, and
the company recently ceased the sale of three nutritional supplements that
contained ephedrine.

But the store doesn't limit the amount of ephedrine products sold, but
Kroger is looking into creating a policy on the sale of those items.

Other retailers have also limited the sale to three boxes or put the
ephedrine containing products behind the counter.