ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, April 10, 1997               TAG: 9704100050
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-13 EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

METH MAKERS WON'T FIND WAL-MART A LUCRATIVE DRUG SOURCE ANYMORE AT LEAST 75 PERCENT OF ILLEGAL UPPERS COME FROM LEGAL PILLS

Nation's largest retailer limits the number of allergy pills a shopper can buy.

To help limit the growth of methamphetamine - whose abuse is feared to become the newest drug epidemic - Wal-Mart is voluntarily limiting each customer's purchase of cold, allergy and diet medications containing chemicals used to make the drug.

``We have seen that this methamphetamine problem has been spreading,'' Jay Allen, a Wal-Mart Stores vice president, told a news conference Wednesday at Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters. ``At Wal-Mart, we want no part, we want no role in helping to contribute to this problem.''

The pills involved in the program that began Feb. 1 contain pseudoephedrine or ephedrine, essential for making methamphetamine, or phenylpropanolamine, needed for amphetamine. From 75 percent to 85 percent of the nation's supply of the drugs - also known as ``meth,'' ``crank,'' ``speed'' and ``ice'' - is made from the pills, DEA agents said.

Available at $80 to $120 a gram, the stimulant can create delusions, paranoia and aggressive behavior, and the effects of a single dose can last 12 to 14 hours, DEA agents said.

DEA Administrator Thomas Constantine called the move by Wal-Mart - with 2,300 stores, the nation's largest retailer and one of its largest sellers of pharmaceuticals - ``a major event for us.'' He said he hoped other companies would follow suit.

``I have never seen a corporation ... be so proactive,'' he said, adding that the action will be ``more supportive than any legislation we could write.''

Under the Wal-Mart guidelines, a buyer will be able to get a maximum of 17.3 grams of any of the three essential drugs at one time, Allen said. New software in the cash registers will alert the checker and customer when the limits are triggered.

It takes about 60 grams of pseudoephedrine to make a batch of 4 to 5 ounces of methamphetamine, which could earn the producer an average of about $4,000, DEA agents said.

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