Hands-Off Our Runny Noses

By Kerri Houston

CNSNews.com Commentary

March 28, 2005

Good intentions by politicians have been known to inflict collateral damage on innocent bystanders as legislative overreach often causes problems for taxpayers, consumers or other subgroups of the citizenry.

Responding to a recent increase in methamphetamine use and production, the currently elected would like to legislate criminals out of business by passing laws that place common cold remedies out of the reach of non-criminal consumers.

Legislators, both state and federal, are fishing for the guilty in a sea of the innocent.

Meth is a highly addictive and dangerous substance whose manufacture and use places its addicts and the community in peril, and state and federal law enforcement have ramped up efforts to curtail production by successfully identifying and closing meth labs.

Approximately 80% of meth is produced by "super-labs" predominantly in California and along southern border states. Many are operated by Mexican criminal gangs whose extensive trafficking network supplies super-labs with ingredients needed to "cook" the meth.

But about 20% of meth is produced by small "Mom and Pop" labs found primarily in rural areas. Recipes are easy to find, and ingredients include common household items such as camping fuel, drain cleaner, and pseudophedrine (PSE), a decongestant in over-the-counter cold and allergy remedies. Although local and federal law enforcement and state legislatures have been aggressively targeting meth, federal legislators have now come at the problem with pencils drawn, and drafted the Senate and House Combat Meth Act of 2005.

The objectionable provision in the bill, and with many others at the state level, is that it would reclassify over-the-counter cold medicine as "Schedule V" products, meaning that cold and allergy pills and potions would only be available from behind-the-counter pharmacists, and then only after a cold-sufferer (or parent of one) showed ID and signed a register to let Big Brother know which products and the quantifies being purchased.

This provision is anti-consumer, violates privacy and would be costly. It is a woeful misallocation of resources and would not eliminate the problems.

Common products such as Nyquil, Claritin-D and Alka-Seltzer Plus Night-Time Cold Medicine - and nearly 300 other medicines containing PSE - would be stuck behind pharmacy counters. This is bad because Americans are label readers, including when shopping for cold remedies. We read boxes, check prices, determine which is best for specific symptoms, and choose accordingly.

Requiring all cold medicines that contain PSE to be taken off consumer friendly shelves and distributed only by licensed pharmacists will make it nearly impossible to comparison shop for cold remedies by price or ingredient. And as pharmacists will have to share time formerly spent dispensing and advising on prescription drugs with OTC products, this will surely raise the cost of these medications.

This could pose even more serious problems for cold sufferers in some rural or inner-city areas where a full service pharmacy is distant or inconveniently located. These consumers purchase aspirin, Tums and cold pills from the local Circle K, the corner grocer or Wal-Mart shelves. This regulatory move will limit or even eliminate timely access for them.

And what about a person working third shift or whose child becomes sick in the middle of the night? Instead of running to the 24 hour grocery store for Children's Tylenol Cold, Mom will now have to explain to little Joey that his miserable cold will have to wait until the full service pharmacy opens at 9:00 a.m. Not everyone schedules their cold or allergy attack during pharmacy hours.

Criminals don't obey laws, which is what make them criminals in the first place. Law abiding citizens are easier to regulate because they do obey laws, thus making them legislative targets. In removing access to OTC drugs with PSE, the hardship will not rest on the criminals, but on patients and pharmacists.

There are good ideas for combating meth. Taxpayer dollars could be spent more wisely on public educations regarding the dangers of meth and recognizing the signs of its use; providing grants to local law enforcement for finding and busting meth labs; codifying "anti-bond" legislation that keeps producers awaiting trial off the streets; and stiffening sentences for meth producers and traffickers.

Allowing a consumer to only purchase a few products at a time is also an easy, sensible and proven solution.

Manufacturers of cold remedies are also responding to the problem by considering changes to the ingredients in their medications. Pfizer's latest release, Sudafed PE, has exchanged pseudophedrine for phenylephrine, an ingredient that cannot be used in cooking meth. Other companies may soon follow suit.

Availability of PSE over the Internet is yet another reason to crack down the dangerous practice of illegal drug importation. The Canadian government has already arrested members of Hezbollah for smuggling pseudophedrine into the United States, and curtailing cross-border Internet sales would do more to dry up PSE used for meth production than having the law-abiding stand in line with Kleenex boxes impatiently waiting for a box of runny nose pills.

Meth is a huge problem that needs to be dealt with harshly by law enforcement with targeted and effective legislative, community and market support that empowers police and increase public awareness of the problem.

Legislators should avoid overstepping their bounds, turn their turrets toward the guilty, and leave the honest and sniffling alone.

Kerri Houston is vice president of policy for Frontiers of Freedom Institute.