More Lawrence-area businesses are making it harder for consumers to get their hands on Sudafed and other over-the-counter medicines with a key ingredient used in “cooking” the street drug methamphetamine.

They’re moving it behind the pharmacy counter, putting it in a locked enclosure or, in the case of one Lawrence business, pulling it from the shelves altogether.

But while a state law-enforcement official applauds the changes, he says there’s a problem with Kansas’ anti-meth efforts: Cooperation by retailers is optional.

Although many businesses — such as Hy-Vee, Dillons and Checkers — are taking voluntary steps to limit the sale of Sudafed and similar drugs containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, there’s no law prohibiting a less civic-minded business from selling a case at a time to anyone who wants it.

“We seem to have this one glaring weakness in our laws and our approach: There’s no control over the precursors” to making methamphetamine, said Kyle Smith, a spokesman for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. “While it’s great to have carrots, sometimes you need a stick.”

In 2002, the KBI backed a proposed state law that would have made it illegal to sell more than three boxes of medication containing ephedrine at one time to an individual, but Smith said lobbying efforts by the pharmaceutical industry helped kill that part of the bill. A similar effort failed in 1999, when Kansas became the first state to try to limit the sale of such drugs, he said.

Since then, at least 10 other states have enacted the kinds of laws Kansas hasn’t been able to pass, Smith said. In what some view as the country’s strictest anti-meth law, Oklahoma in April reclassified pseudoephedrine products as a Schedule V controlled substance and required them to be sold only by a pharmacist.

“I think it would be really interesting to watch Oklahoma and see if they have a significant decrease” in meth crime, said Cristi Cain, project director of Kansas’ Methamphetamine Awareness and Prevention Project. “We’re seeing an increase in people coming up (to Kansas) to get the ingredients.”

Facts and figures

KBI figures show a decline in methamphetamine-lab seizures the past two years — from 847 in 2001 to 649 in 2003 — but Smith said he suspected that was because police agencies weren’t reporting all their meth seizures.

House panel hears about methamphetamine problem in Kansas (2-10-04) KBI reports declining seizures of meth labs (1-11-04) Midwest fights against meth (7-22-04)

Dan Dunbar, a drug prosecutor in the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office, said he hadn’t seen a decline in meth cases, which he estimated make up about one in five of his felony drug cases.

“It’s not better,” he said. “At best, it’s the same.”

Pseudoephedrine is a common target for shoplifters, which is one reason it’s in businesses’ interests to put it out of the way.

Methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug also known as “crank” or “ice,” can be injected, snorted, smoked or swallowed and can cost from $350 to a few thousand dollars an ounce. Though most is made in so-called superlabs in California and Mexico, smaller labs are common in rural areas.

Earlier this year, Lawrence-area Hy-Vee stores began requiring customers to ask a pharmacist for help if they want any drug containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine.

“We take their name and address and how many they’re buying,” said Chris Whitson, a pharmacy technician in the store at 3504 Clinton Parkway. “There have been a couple people who were kind of irritated with it, but for the most part, they understand. A lot of people don’t realize that’s how they make the methamphetamine.”

Wait and see

A handful of other area businesses sampled — including Dollar General, Dillons, Walgreens and Wal-Mart — are taking similar steps, either by putting the drugs behind the pharmacy counter, behind the cash register or in a locked case.

Jim Lewis, owner of Checkers, 2300 La., is going so far as to pull all the products off his shelf. He made the decision after hearing a news report about the new Oklahoma law.

Lewis thinks there should be a similar law in Kansas and said it was a matter of time before the state passed one.

“I thought, ‘Well, we’ll be proactive and just get rid of it,'” said Lewis, whose store doesn’t have a pharmacy. “There’s other places where you can buy it.”

Smith, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation spokesman, had a three-word response when he heard about Lewis’ decision: “God bless him.”