K-Mart, CVS, Rite-Aid and Walgreen Company Join the Fight Against Methamphetamine

K-Mart and three of the nations largest drugstore chains join Wal-Mart, Target and Albertson’s (story here) in moving certain nonprescription cold and allergy medicines behind pharmacy counters. Read the story here:

Kmart and three of the nation’s largest drugstore chains said Wednesday that they will move certain nonprescription cold and allergy medicines behind pharmacy counters, making them the latest in a string of retailers to limit access to products whose ingredients can be used to make the illegal drug methamphetamine.

The moves by Sears Holding Corp.’s Kmart, CVS Corp., Rite Aid Corp. and Walgreen Co. mean customers will need to ask pharmacists for medicines containing pseudoephedrine rather than picking them off a store shelf. Pseudoephedrine, an active ingredient of Pfizer Inc.’s Sudafed and Schering-Plough Corp.’s Claritin-D, can also be used to manufacture methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug.

Troy, Mich.-based Kmart said it will stop selling the pseudoephedrine products at any of its department stores that do not have a pharmacy. The discount retailer has pharmacies at 1,130 of its 1,429 stores.

Rite Aid said it will move “single ingredient” pseudoephedrine products within a week and combination products by August 1. Camp Hill, Pa.-based Rite Aid operates about 3,400 drugstores nationwide.

The other companies only plan to restrict access to single ingredient products. Kmart and Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS set a July 1 deadline for the change. A Walgreen Co. spokeswoman said the chain – the nation’s largest by sales – has not yet set a timetable for the move.

“A lot of our stores were already doing this,” Walgreen’s Carol Hively said. “Now we’re going to put it into effect chainwide.” Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreens said it also will continue restricting the amount of pseudoephedrine products that can be purchased at one time.

Target Corp., Albertson’s Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. all have recently limited access to medications containing the drug. Pfizer is also in the process of reformulating its Sudafed products to remove pseudoephedrine.

A number of states have imposed restrictions on the sale of pseudoephedrine products in an attempt to curb a proliferation of so-called meth labs across the country. Six states only allow pharmacies to sell drugs with the ingredient and seven restrict access to pseudoephedrine products.

Ok, now what about the importation of the chemical precursors to California desert labs?