Pubdate: Wed, 29 Jun 2005
Source: Winston-Salem Journal (NC)
Copyright: 2005 Piedmont Publishing Co. Inc.
Contact:  http://www.journalnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/504
Note: The Journal does not publish letters from writers outside its daily
home delivery circulation area.
Author:  David Ingram

HAIRE PROPOSES TO AMEND COLD-MEDICINE RESTRICTIONS

Behind-the-counter question kicked to subcommittee

State retailers and rural legislators won a battle yesterday in the fight
over proposed restrictions on some cold medicine, forcing the matter to a
legislative subcommittee for further negotiation.

Legislation that passed the N.C. Senate in April would require that any
medicine tablets including pseudoephedrine - such as Sudafed - be kept
behind a pharmacy counter, away from people who might use the tablets to
make methamphetamine. Consumers would need to show photo identification to
buy the medicine, and couldn't buy more than nine grams - about a third of
an ounce - a month without a prescription.

Senators voted 41-3 in favor of the idea at the time, but some members of
the House said yesterday that they might not go along.

Rep. Phil Haire, D-Jackson, lives in the town of Sylva with a population
estimated at 2,426. He argued that the restrictions would place too great a
burden on people who don't live near all-night pharmacies and buy their
medicine from grocery stores.

"What we're talking about is access to a legitimate product," Haire said
during a hearing yesterday. "I don't know about you all, but I have bad
allergies. My Food Lion doesn't have a pharmacist. My Ingles doesn't have a
pharmacist."

Advocates for those stores said they don't want to give up the ability to
sell a profitable product, especially if consumers would have nowhere else
to turn on short notice.

Haire is offering a competing bill to the Senate's that would place some
restrictions on cold tablets, although it would only apply to medicines
where pseudoephedrine is the "sole active ingredient," and even those
medicines could still be available behind the counter of a grocery or
convenience store.

It also would not restrict the amount that a person could buy in a given
time period. Neither bill would put restrictions on gel caps or other liquid
forms of cold medicine.

Law-enforcement officials and some legislators argue that the tougher
restrictions are necessary to curb the spread of methamphetamine, of which
pseudoephedrine is a main ingredient.

The drug's presence in the state continues to grow, with 185 labs found in
the first five months this year, compared with 322 labs found in all of
2004. The labs emit toxic and combustible fumes.

"When you take this ingredient out of the hands of the criminals, they
cannot make meth," Attorney General Roy Cooper said. "There will still be
many ways to treat a bad cold, but there aren't many ways to treat the brain
damage of a small child in a meth lab."

Cooper was joined at yesterday's hearing by district attorneys and other
law-enforcement officials from around the state. They emphasized the effect
of meth labs on communities, particularly in Western North Carolina, and
said that stopping the labs is more important than convenience to consumers.

"You weigh the risk to society and the risk to a few people who can't plan
ahead, and the risk to society is incredible," said District Attorney Tom
Keith of Forsyth County, who attended the hearing.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Josh