MORE COLD MEDICATION LIMITS SOUGHT

Five months after Florida began restricting access to
over-the-counter cold remedies containing pseudoephedrine, federal
lawmakers are pushing a much tougher crackdown on some of the
best-known brands in the sniffles business.

If the bipartisan proposal passes muster on Capitol Hill, photo IDs
could be required to buy such common and popular drugs as NyQuil and
Sudafed. Written logs of who purchased the drugs, and how much was
purchased,

It's all part of a national effort to keep addicts from using cold
medicines to whip up illegal batches of methamphetamine.
Pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in virtually all
decongestants, is also the base chemical used by home-and-garage labs
brewing so-called "meth."

No one disputes the need to curb meth, which damages the brain so
severely that it can take two years for a user to recover. The issue
is balance, says Randy Miller, senior vice president of government
affairs for the Florida Retail Federation.

"If we can help control access to the main ingredient (in meth), we
are happy to do so," he says. But he calls the federal proposal
"draconian."

"You wonder if you make it so difficult to get that you are hurting
an honest citizen who just wants to get a Sudafed."

The other issue for retailers, of course, is money. In 2004, U.S.
sales of drugs combining pseudoephedrine with other ingredients
totaled $737 million.

Pharmacists aren't much happier about such rules. "We hate being the
over-the-counter police," says Dr. Don Downing, clinical Associate
Professor of Pharmacy at the University of Washington and a
nationally recognized expert on pharmacy practices.

Pseudoephedrine and its variations don't actually cure anything.
Rhinitis, the sniffling, sneezing, coughing misery they alleviate,
doesn't get a lot of respect, either: It's called the Rodney
Dangerfield of respiratory problems.

But consumers in the grip of a grippe don't seem to care. The first
winter after Illinois adopted pseudoephedrine sales restrictions
similar to Florida's, sales not only increased, there were
enforcement problems in keeping the drugs behind the pharmacy
counter, according to Information Resources Inc., a Chicago
consulting firm.

Florida's law requires that medicines made up solely of
pseudoephedrine - primarily Sudafed - be sold from behind a sales
counter, much as cigarettes are. Sales are limited to three packages
per customer or a total of nine grams - "a good, conservative first
step," FDLE Special Agent Rick Zenuch said.

Kmart and Publix stores have gone beyond Florida law, allowing the
drugs to be sold only from behind the counter of their in-store
pharmacies. As a result, Publix stores without pharmacies no longer
sell the drugs. At Kmart, 299 of the chain's 1,429 stores don't
offer the drugs.

Target went further still, putting all drugs containing even some
pseudoephedrine behind the pharmacy counter.

The federal proposal could restrict sales of dozens of well-known
drugs that have some pseudoephedrine. In one version, drugs would be
sold almost exclusively by pharmacists or pharmacy technicians.
Retail stores without pharmacies could sell cold medicines from a
locked case if they got special approval.

Pharmacists also would maintain a written log of people who bought
the remedies, with their date of birth and the amount purchased.
Customers would have to show a photo ID.

Even though the Florida Pharmacy Association's members might stand to
benefit from the pharmacy-only provision, the group still has
reservations, says Michael Jackson, executive vice president and CEO.

"We just hope that... it inadvertently does not affect access
consumers would have," Jackson says - or create a paperwork nightmare
for pharmacists balancing privacy with written logs of sniffling,
cold-weary customers.

The flurry of state and federal legislative interest comes amid
evidence that similarly well-intentioned laws in two states have not
dramatically cut down on meth abuse, even as they chewed into
retailers' profit margins and thrust pharmacists into the front lines
of the war on drugs. For one thing, to cook up homemade meth, "You
actually need drum barrels" of pseudoephedrine, Jackson says.

Adds Downing: "Most of this (pseudoephedrine) was bought not from
pharmacies, but from mom-and-pop stores selling it out the back door
by the case."

The FDLE acknowledges much of South Florida's illegal meth is
smuggled from sprawling labs in Mexico, not brewed from a retailer's
shelves of cold remedies.

Oklahoma's meth lab seizures fell by 80 percent to 90 percent in the
first year it put cold and allergy medications behind counters. But
Oklahoma City police officials told The Associated Press this year
that while the local meth labs were gone, meth wasn't. Mexican gangs
filled the vacuum, emerging as efficient conduits from so-called
superlabs across the border.

The pattern was repeated in Washington state.

FDLE's Zenuch counters: "The threat that is posed by these labs is
not necessarily in the amount of meth produced." Rather, it's the
toxic chemicals used by illegal labs to cook meth and the equally
toxic chemicals created during the process.

The poisons saturate homes right down to the yard dirt, permeating
"the drywall, the carpet, the curtains" - and the children who may be
living there, Zenuch says. The result is a mini toxic-waste site:
Crews must wear protective suits and breathing masks for the cleanup,
which can cost $3,000 to $10,000 per site.

Retailers will likely pay another price for curbing the labs'
proliferation. One year after Oklahoma put everyday cold and allergy
medicine behind counters, sales of well-known brands plummeted 16
percent, according to Information Resources.

The U.S. market for decongestants is already slipping, falling from
$135 million in 2000 to $113 million in 2004, according to a survey
by Kalorama Information, which tracks drug sales.

Drug companies aren't taking any chances. Sudafed manufacturer Pfizer
has introduced Sudafed PE, which replaces pseudoephedrine with
another ingredient.

But meth addicts are ingenious at cooking up alternatives, warns
Downing, who speculates Pfizer's new ingredient may offer fast - but
temporary - relief. "There is a chemist somewhere who is going to
post a meth formula on the Internet" using it, he predicts.