Pubdate: Tue, 15 Feb 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: Source rarely prints LTEs received from outside its circulation area Author: David Ingram Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) OFFICIALS LOOKING AT KEY INGREDIENT IN METH N.C. Attorney General, Some Legislators Considering Ways To Inhibit Purchases Of Cold Medicine RALEIGH -- State officials moved last year to impose tougher sentences on people who make methamphetamine. Now they're turning their attention to a main source of the drug: medicine for the common cold. Pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in medicines to relieve congestion, allergies and other cold symptoms, is also the key ingredient for methamphetamine. Attorney General Roy Cooper and legislators from western counties are looking at limiting the sale of tablets that include pseudoephedrine. "We have to cut this dangerous drug off at the source, and criminals can't make methamphetamine if they can't get enough of the key ingredient," Cooper said. "I want limits that are as strong as we can have." No bill has been filed in the General Assembly, but legislators could have several choices if they chose to limit purchases. They could require that the medicines be kept behind pharmacists' counters, that consumers present identification or that consumers be able to buy only a few packets at a time. Any limit could be a burden on businesses and consumers, but supporters say that it might be a burden worth bearing. "I support strengthening the law, but we have to make sure that we don't damage the retail merchants with any unforeseen consequences," said Rep. Mitch Gillespie, R-McDowell. Cooper said that any proposal would focus on tablets because few if any methamphetamine cooks use liquid caplets. David Work, the executive director of the N.C. Board of Pharmacy, said that even tablets are an inefficient way to produce amphetamines. Work said that a 180-mg tablet might contain only 30 mg of pseudoephedrine, and extracting the active ingredient is far less efficient than illegally buying pure pseudoephedrine. "You can make butter from skim milk, but why would you?" Work asked. "It's a personal conduct problem more so than a substance problem." Still, methamphetamine use has turned out to be enough of a problem that several other state legislatures are considering limiting the access to any medicine with pseudoephedrine. Oklahoma passed a law last April, and bills have been filed in Arizona, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota and other states, as well as in the U.S. Senate. Oklahoma officials credit the law with helping to cut the number of meth labs by at least 70 percent. By this fall, they're hoping to have a statewide database of people buying pseudoephedrine to prevent pharmacy-hopping. "They (pharmacists) will know if someone buying two boxes was just across the street buying two boxes. They'll have real-time data," said Mark Woodward, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. N.C. authorities first discovered meth labs in 1999, when they found nine. They found 322 in 2004 and are on pace to find 400 in 2005. The creation of methamphetamine causes toxic waste and hazardous fumes. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth