I didn't even see this on the front page of the Express-News until now...
Over-the-counter medicines are going behind the counter
Web Posted: 05/19/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Meena Thiruvengadam
Express-News Business Writer
It soon could be harder to snuff out a case of the sniffles.
Retailers are joining the fight against methamphetamine production, but in the process may inconvenience shoppers who just want relief.
A legal chemical used to make the illegal upper — pseudoephedrine — is the same one used to clear stuffy noses in popular over-the-counter products like Nyquil and Sudafed.
To reduce the problem, retailers like Target, CVS and Walgreens are joining legislators in making it harder to buy cold and allergy remedies by moving them behind pharmacy counters.
The move is similar to earlier retail restrictions on household items that can be abused, like glue, markers and spray paint.
In this case, the National Retail Federation expects restricting access to medicines will affect about 200 different products.
"We want to do our part to help law enforcement reduce the access to these products for people using them for illegal purposes," said Michael DeAngelis, a spokesman for CVS, which has 28 San Antonio-area stores.
Methamphetamine producers buy large amounts of pseudoephedrine products and add other chemicals in makeshift labs to produce meth.
Earlier this month, the Texas Senate approved a bill that would limit sales of pseudoephedrine products to two packages. The rule wouldn't apply to liquids, but would require stores to maintain sales logs and check purchaser IDs.
And only stores with pharmacies would be allowed to sell products containing pseudoephedrine, a move the National Association of Convenience Stores says casts their members in an undeserved bad light.
"It's treating them as the bad guys because they don't have pharmacies," said Lyle Beckwith, the group's senior vice president of government relations. "They're not the bad guys. The bad guys are the meth cooks."
He said moving pseudoephedrine-based products off convenience store shelves won't significantly affect stores' income. But consumer advocates worry honest buyers won't be able to find the medicines they need.
"If your pharmacy closes at 6 p.m. on a Saturday, and your child comes down with a cold and can't sleep after closing hours, you may be out of luck until Monday," Linda Suydam, president of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, said when testifying to Congress last November.
By mid-July, Target plans to place pseudoephedrine-based products behind its pharmacy counters. Customers only will be able to buy them after consulting with a pharmacist and only during pharmacy hours. Target stores without pharmacies won't sell the products.
Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS are pledging similar measures set to begin this summer.
H.E. Butt Grocery Co. is taking an even more drastic step. The San Antonio-based chain will stop selling products whose only active ingredient is pseudoephedrine by June 20, spokeswoman Kate Rogers said.
Susan Dalterio, who teaches a course called Drugs and Society at UTSA, thinks the retailers' measures may stop small-scale meth makers but not larger operations.
"The guys out there making the pounds of methamphetamines probably don't buy their stuff from places like Wal-Mart," she said.
Still, an Oklahoma law restricting the sale of products containing pseudoephedrine has been credited with helping slow methamphetamine production in that state. Following in Oklahoma's footsteps, many states including Texas are considering similar legislation.
To keep products on store shelves, manufacturers are turning to an alternative decongestant ingredient: phenylephrine. Cold medicines formulated with the chemical have been sold in Europe for years. Here, it's used in nasal sprays including Rhinall and Vicks Sinex.
Pharmaceutical companies say the new chemical can't be converted into methamphetamine. But consumers using new formulations may have to wait longer for relief from their symptoms.
Pfizer Inc., the maker of Sudafed, began distributing a phenylephrine-based version of the popular cold medicine in January. H-E-B will begin selling Sudafed PE next month.
California-based Leiner Health Products, a manufacturer of store-brand over-the-counter medicines for retailers including CVS, Costco and Wal-Mart, plans to begin distributing a generic version of Sudafed PE in June.
Spokeswoman Crystal Wright said the company is working on phenylephrine-based generics of about a dozen products, including Benadryl and Actifed. Leiner expects the products will hit store shelves this fall.
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As originally published this story contained an error.
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