Idaho may control cold medicines

BOISE — Lawmakers are planning legislation that would require some cold medicines to be bought through a pharmacist, a move that would make Idaho the 30th state in the U.S. to pass such restrictions.

The legislation is an attempt to control substances used to manufacture the illegal drug methamphetamine.

Lewiston Democratic Rep. Mike Mitchell is spearheading the legislation, meeting with potential supporters and law enforcement.

Republican lawmakers say they'll support his effort, which could be introduced during the current legislative session.

In October, Oregon became the latest state to pass curbs on medicines such as Sudafed containing pseudoephedrine, a decongestant that methamphetamine makers use in home laboratories to make the highly addictive drug.

Proponents say the new law is needed to stop the rise of methamphetamine, identified by law enforcement officers in a recent survey as their No. 1 problem.

"We need to do something about the availability of (the ingredients) that people buy to make meth," Mitchell said.

Methamphetamine use contributed to about 2,000 arrests in 2003, up 5 percent from 1998, according to Idaho State Police statistics.

Mitchell's plan would treat the cold medicines with pseudoephedrine as a type of controlled substance. So instead of buying cold medicine off the shelf, shoppers would have to see a pharmacist or a pharmacy assistant, show photo ID and sign for the product.

It's similar to the requirement that's in place for products containing codeine.

Some details of Mitchell's legislation have to be worked out, including how to solve issues such as towns without overnight pharmacies to dispense the cold remedies.

And some people think the measures go too far, arguing that moving cold medicines from the shopping aisles to behind the pharmacists' counter would take up too much room.

Nampa pharmacist Vic Allen supports restrictions on cold remedies that include pseudoephedrine as the sole ingredient, but said that including medicines that also have other ingredients may go too far.

"You're talking about taking a 3-foot section of my store out of the front and putting it in back," Allen said.

Convenience store owners would have to remove the items from their shelves entirely, but owners say they don't carry enough cold medicine to meet demands of illegal meth laboratories.