Meth-proof Sudafed to hit markets

[TransitJohn]

By JENNI DILLON
Star-Tribune staff writer Saturday, January 01, 2005




A meth-proof version of Sudafed will be available nationwide starting next month.

The new drug could improve customer convenience in many states that limit sales of medicines that can be used to manufacture methamphetamine, including Wyoming, where such laws are expected to be proposed in the coming legislative session.

The original Sudafed, which can be used as a primary ingredient in meth, will not be taken off the market.

Sudafed-maker Pfizer has developed Sudafed PE, which will replace pseudoephedrine with phenylphrine as an active ingredient. On a pharmaceutical level, there have been no direct comparisons of the new decongestant ingredients. However, phenylphrine is commonly used in Europe and is distributed by some U.S. companies and cannot be used to make methamphetamine. Pseudoephedrine and ephedrine products, on the other hand, often are bought or stolen in bulk by illegal drug manufacturers to make meth.

"The diversion of over-the-counter pseudoephedrine-containing products is one of the major contributing factors to the methamphetamine situation in the United States," reads a notice from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. "Inappropriate retail-level purchases by individuals attempting to procure pseudoephedrine for the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine have been documented as a source of much of the pseudoephedrine found in clandestine methamphetamine laboratories."

Many states have passed laws requiring Sudafed and other pseudoephedrine products to be kept behind the counter at pharmacies, and, in Oklahoma, where pseudoephedrine regulations are among the most stringent in the nation, customers also must show identification and sign a log sheet to buy the decongestant medicines.

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