Wal-Mart Moves Cold Drugs

All Wal-Mart stores will move many nonprescription cold and allergy medications behind pharmacy counters by June because they include an ingredient used to make the illegal stimulant methamphetamine, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Monday.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer -- which has nearly 4,000 Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores in the U.S. and 1,600 more abroad -- will join rival Target Corp. in making such a move throughout all locations.

Also Monday, grocery chain Albertsons Inc. of Boise, Idaho, and Longs Drug Stores Corp. of Walnut Creek, Calif., said they would move such medications away from customer traffic areas.

The retailers are trying to make it more difficult for customers to obtain medications containing pseudoephedrine, which is a key component of methamphetamine, a powerfully addictive drug.

Some popular over-the-counter drugs, such as Pfizer Inc.’s Sudafed and Sinutab and Schering-Plough Corp.’s Afrin nasal spray, list pseudoephedrine among their active ingredients. A number of states have imposed restrictions on the sale of some cold medicines.