Pubdate: Sat, 19 Apr 2003
Source: Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC)
Copyright: 2003 Sun Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunnews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/987
Note: apparent 150 word limit on LTEs
Author: David A. Lieb, Associated Press

STATE LOOKS TO LIMIT OVER-THE-COUNTER DRUGS

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -Pharmacist Greg Mitchell is used to people coming in 
to his pharmacy and asking for boxes of Sudafed. They don't care about 
dosages or side effects, and they show no signs of a cold.

Mitchell thinks they are either helping drug dealers or dealing drugs 
themselves because the decongestant is a key ingredient in making the 
highly addictive and illegal stimulant methamphetamine.

"They just want to buy the stuff in quantities and go," says Mitchell, who 
now refuses to sell more than one package at a time from his pharmacy.

Responding to similar scenarios around the state, Missouri lawmakers are 
proposing some of the country's toughest restrictions on the sale of 
over-the-counter medicines such as Sudafed. The plan is being hailed in 
some circles, but business leaders say it goes too far.

Pseudoephedrine, the sole active ingredient in decongestants, can be used 
in making methamphetamine, a brain-damaging drug that is considered a major 
problem in parts of the Midwest, Southwest and West. Relatively inexpensive 
and easy to obtain, meth produces a euphoria similar to cocaine.

Missouri and five other states already limit customers to three packages of 
over-the-counter medicines like Sudafed. But Missouri police seized a 
nation-high 2,725 clandestine meth labs last year, nearly one out of every 
five labs found nationwide, and officials say they have to consider more 
severe steps.

The Missouri legislation, which has passed the House, would require 
medicines to be placed either behind the counter or within 6 feet of a 
cashier, or to contain an electronic anti-theft tag. It also would limit 
each customer to two packages of pseudoephedrine medicines.

Such restrictions would be the toughest in the nation, according to the 
Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which represents manufacturers 
and distributors of over-the-counter medicines.

"This proposal just goes a little too far," said Mike Sargent, a lobbyist 
for the association. "It really unfairly targets the chronic allergy 
sufferer, because that's the consumer who uses this product most often."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens