By Kris Maher
CVS Caremark Corp. has halted sales of certain cold medicines in
West Virginia as part of an effort to fight methamphetamine abuse
in the state, where meth labs have proliferated.
The company will no longer sell single-ingredient
pseudoephedrine, often sold under the Sudafed brand name. The step
follows similar ones by Rite Aid Corp. and Walgreen Co. in the
state, said a spokesman for Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who has
lobbied companies to stop selling the products.
The illicit production and use of meth, a highly addictive
stimulant, have been on the rise nationally: The number of meth-lab
seizures more than doubled between 2007 and 2010, according to
federal data.
The increase partly stems from more people using a cheap,
small-batch method of making the drug, in which the pseudoephedrine
in over-the-counter cold medicines is mixed with common household
items in two-liter bottles.
Last year, law-enforcement officials seized a record 530 meth
labs in West Virginia, said Mike Goff, who administers a program
that monitors the sale of controlled substances for the state Board
of Pharmacy. This year, 207 labs have been seized in the state,
which has a population of 1.9 million.
"We took this step as part of our longstanding commitment to
assuring that PSE products are purchased at our stores only for
legitimate medical purposes," a CVS spokesman said.
A Rite Aid representative said the retailer in November switched
to offering a formulation of the medicine in West Virginia that is
resistant to methods used by meth labs, and last month lowered
purchase limits for the drugs--moves similar to CVS's. A spokesman
said Walgreen had agreed to adopt "best practices" in the state and
was still working through details.
A spokeswoman for the Johnson & Johnson unit that makes
Sudafed said it is working to find ways to help control the sale of
the drug for illicit purposes while making sure consumers have
access to it.
The Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which represents
makers of pseudoephedrine products, said it supports other measures
that don't limit the availability of medicines to law-abiding
citizens. In West Virginia, this would include a meth-offender
registry "to help block the sale of products containing PSE to
known meth criminals," said Emily Skor, a spokeswoman for the
group.
In addition to stopping sales of the product in its 50 stores in
West Virginia, CVS also will drop it from 40 stores located within
15 miles of the state border, in Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio,
Pennsylvania and Virginia. It is the first time the company has
made such a move.
CVS will continue to sell in the 90 stores a formulation of the
medicine that is resistant to methods used by meth labs. Earlier
this year, the company cut the amount of pseudoephedrine products
that can be purchased by an individual in a year to half of the
limit permitted under West Virginia law.
Write to Kris Maher at kris.maher@wsj.com
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