Adult cold sufferers will soon find it tougher to buy Sudafed than to vote.
They’ll need a valid photo ID to make a purchase and they only need a utility bill to cast a ballot.
They’ll also be limited to two packages of cold medicine and required to sign a receipt book for law enforcement’s use in hunting criminals.
These are some of the changes awaiting customers and retailers starting Oct. 1 when Washington launches a new offensive against makers of methamphetamine who concoct batches of the drug using a mix of everyday cold medications and volatile chemicals.
The state’s intent is to stymie the cooks, in spite of the hassle for customers and store owners.
“It is going to be more difficult,” said Susan York of Lead On American, a Lynnwood-based anti-meth group. “The law is not just to make it inconvenient. The law is to make us safer, to protect us.”
Methamphetamine is not the only illicit drug on the street, and in some areas it is not even the most abused substance. Yet meth is the one drug uniting lawmakers, law enforcement and community activists in an aggressive campaign of interdiction against those making, selling and using it.
Legislatures from Oklahoma to Oregon and east to Alabama are imposing restrictions on products containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine which are the ingredients most sought by meth cooks. Congress is now debating the need for federal controls.
Washington state lawmakers joined the political chorus in the 2005 session passing House Bill 2266 regulating nonprescription medications with any amount of the identified ingredients that are sold in tablet form. They exempted caplets and gel caps.
Starting Oct. 1, these legal drugs must be taken off shelves and sold from a secured area. No one under the age of 18 will be allowed to buy such products at any of the 4,800 stores and 1,200 pharmacies where they are sold. Everyone over 18 must present a valid photo ID for their purchase.
Beginning Jan. 1, stores must maintain a ledger with details of each sale. The Board of Pharmacy is proposing that clerks record the customer’s name, address and date of birth; the type of ID and any applicable number as on a driver’s license; the number of packages bought and number of tablets in each package.
Customers must sign the ledger and the information must be kept for two years. The log is open to inspection without notice by any Washington police officer.
Drug store and supermarket chains have already been moving cold remedies into their pharmacies or behind counters.
The log requirement, which stirred a fierce fight in the Legislature, continues to be a point of contention. Retailers and civil libertarians say it remains unclear how customers’ information will be safeguarded and used.
“There’s no protection at all,” said ACLU attorney Jennifer Shaw. “Nothing prevents people from seeing others’ confidential information. What recourse is there for people whose information is stolen?”
Some fear that shoppers’ privacy may be compromised each time the log is signed.
“The moment I hand it to (a customer), I’m exposing the name, address and date of birth of previous purchasers,” said Jason Moulton, who represents Safeway on drug-fighting councils in Snohomish and Pierce counties and is on the state’s Alliance Against Meth task force.
Retailers are pressing for liability protection.
“Where is our safe harbor so that it’s not our nose that gets bloodied because we are out there following the rules?” asked Moulton, who is the loss-prevention director for Safeway stores in Washington and three other states.
Law enforcement officers hope the logs help them catch meth cooks who shop at multiple stores to get enough ingredients to cook up a batch of the drug.
“It will be a useful investigative tool,” said Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney Janice Ellis.
Critics of the law say its effect will be blunted because store logbooks won’t be linked for comparison. Attorney General Rob McKenna may seek funding next year to create a statewide registration system.
Opponents continue to question the value of the law. Fewer clandestine labs exist in Washington today compared to a year ago and one reason is that more meth of a higher quality is being smuggled here from “super labs” hidden in Mexico and the southwestern United States. The labs are operated by the same international drug organizations that also supply cocaine and heroin to the region.
“Great, now you can’t buy pseudoephedrine but you can meth,” the ACLU’s Shaw said. “So what we have we solved by that?”
Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Roy, author of the new state law, rejected assertions that his legislation is a solution in search of a problem.
“It was not to wipe out the meth epidemic. It was to wipe out the clandestine meth labs,” he said.
Chris Johnson of the Attorney General’s office said if the flow of meth from super labs is slowed, demand will soar and local meth cooks will be back in business.
“People will go back to cooking again. They are determined to have it,” he said. “This isn’t just fighting the last war.”
The Board of Pharmacy is responsible for implementing the law. In the next two weeks they will send out letters notifying pharmacies, groceries and drug stores of the pending changes.
“It is incumbent upon the state to get the word out so the customers don’t think it is us trying to inconvenience them,” said Jan Teague, president and chief executive officer of the Washington Retail Association, a trade group for grocers and drug stores.
The state is relying on law enforcement and community activists to ensure compliance.
And they’re ready.
Teams of volunteers from anti-meth groups plan to fan out across the state to visit stores to be sure workers are checking ID, limiting sales and recording purchases. Stores that are found out of compliance will be reported to police.
“Our role is to go out and educate store owners and bring awareness of the issues to them,” said York of Lead On America.
She said retailers want to be part of the solution in combating meth.
“And if it doesn’t, we’ll have to figure out something that does,” she said.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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