Wal-Mart Is Curbing Sales of Cold, Diet Pills

To help limit the growth of methamphetamine--feared to become the newest drug epidemic--Wal-Mart Stores Inc. 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 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. Between 75% and 85% of the nation’s supply of the drugs--also known as “meth,” “crank,” “speed” and “ice”--is made from the pills, DEA agents said.

DEA administrator Thomas Constantine called the move by Wal-Mart--with 2,300 stores, the country’s largest retailer and one of its largest pharmaceutical sellers--”a major event for us.” He said he hopes other companies will follow suit.

Under the guidelines Wal-Mart is imposing on itself, a buyer will be able to get a maximum of 17.3 grams of any of the three essential drugs at a time, Allen said in an interview.

Under a law that takes effect Oct. 3, a customer could buy up to 24 grams of pseudoephedrine or ephedrine at a time.

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

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart is already limiting each customer to six units, or containers, of medications with pseudoephedrine, ephedrine or phenylpropanolamine at once. New software in the cash registers will alert the checker and customer when such limits are met.

Shares of Wal-Mart were unchanged at $28.625 on the New York Stock Exchange.