Cold sufferers will find it harder to obtain certain OTC medicines

Pseudoephedrine is used in the making of illegal drugs.
TOLEDO BLADE
Cold and flu season is under way, but finding a remedy for the ailments may be tougher this winter.
To help police and others better control the sale of an ingredient used in an illegal drug, many stores have removed nonprescription cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine from store shelves and put them behind the pharmacy counter.
Affected are all the popular cold medications such as Sudafed, Actifed, Dimetapp and Nyquil, and even store brands promising the same relief.
Some stores even have restricted how many packages of the cold medicine can be bought at one time and are requiring purchasers to provide picture identification. Some may carry fewer products containing pseudoephedrine and more containing a different drug, which may be less effective in fighting cold symptoms.
Getting medicine to fight colds this winter will be less convenient and perhaps more confusing for consumers.
Irritated customer
"I understand why they're doing it, but it's irritating the first time you go through it," said Dani Smith, of Oregon, Ohio, who visited a Target store to pick up Sudafed for her chest cold.
"I was intrigued by all the little cards. But I wasn't sure what to do with it next because there were no signs. I actually had to ask [someone]," she said.
Among the national chain stores, Target probably has the most restrictive policy.
It removed all drugs containing pseudoephedrine from its stores without pharmacies. At stores with pharmacies, those drugs were removed from the shelves and placed behind the pharmacy counters.
Cards advertising the drugs are on display, allowing a customer to choose one to hand to the pharmacist.
Smith said that to obtain the Sudafed at the Target pharmacy, she had show an ID and then had to pay for the drug there -- resulting in a separate transaction in the store later for other items.
"I told my husband afterward it was kind of a pain in the butt."
Stimulant ingredient
Many stores acted last spring after law enforcement authorities sought to make the over-the-counter medicines containing pseudoephedrine less available. The ingredient is a stimulant used in the manufacture of methamphetamine, also known as speed, ice, or crank -- a drug that is illegal, dangerous, and highly addictive.
There has been a significant rise in the number of meth labs around the country, with authorities making nearly 16,000 seizures last year.
Meanwhile, sales of over-the-counter cough or cold and related medicines have been healthy. Sales reached $3.4 billion last year, nearly a fifth of all nonprescription drug sales, according to the Consumer Healthcare Products Association.
The measures taken varied by retailer. For example, Sudafed, a common decongestant widely available for decades, has been removed from some stores, is monitored by a pharmacist at others, and is kept in limited quantities on shelves at other stores. But many gasoline stations or convenience stores that sell the medicine have imposed no restrictions.
It is unclear whether the restrictions will hurt sales of the products containing pseudoephedrine or whether cold sufferers will avoid stores that don't readily display all the brands.