Lawbreakers may have trouble buying enough cold medicine to cook meth, but customers with a bad cold or a sinus headache also could be inconvenienced under a proposal supported by three top state leaders.

Nonprescription products — such as tablets for Sudafed, Tylenol Allergy and Claritin — would be sold only at pharmacies and would be kept behind counters in locked containers. 

And people who want to buy the pills would be required to show identification and sign a log book under an antimethamphetamine proposal that drew criticism from ACLU Nebraska.

The restrictions on selling the cold and allergy medicines erode privacy rights and are ineffective, said Tim Butz, ACLU Nebraska's executive director.

"It shouldn't be the government's business who needs cold medicine," he said Wednesday evening after three state leaders detailed the restrictions as part of a four-point antimeth proposal that will go to the Legislature next year.

The restrictions apply to any product that contains the starch tablet form of pseudoephedrine, a necessary ingredient in making the highly addictive stimulant. 

The restrictions wouldn't apply to gel and liquid forms of pseudoephedrine, which are not used in cooking meth. 

Currently, nonprescription cold and allergy medicines are available on store shelves, sometimes with limits on how much stores will sell.

The antimeth legislative package also would include stiffer sentences for people caught with large amounts of meth and longer potential sentences for drug crimes that involve firearms.

The four-part package was announced by Gov. Mike Johanns, Attorney General Jon Bruning and Lt. Gov. Dave Heineman at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

The meth package attacks the meth problem from two directions by "restricting the supply of ingredients and increasing the penalties for dealers," said Heineman, who is expected to take over as governor sometime in January if Johanns is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as secretary of agriculture.

"Those who make and sell this deadly drug clearly have no regard for the lives they destroy," said Heineman, who said he would support the antimeth package.

Several lobbyists for the retail industry supported the proposals that will create more work for retailers.   "This is probably a responsible thing to do, locking up the starch tabs," said Kathy Siefken, who represents the Nebraska Grocery Industry Association.

"Our members are members of the communities, and they've seen the destruction that meth causes. If we can stop that, we are stepping up to the plate," she said.

Most people who buy cold and allergy products would likely switch to gel tabs, she predicted. For example, Tylenol sinus products come in both starch tablet form, which would be locked away, and gel form, which wouldn't, she said.

But the proposal, another layer of government intrusion into people's private lives, wouldn't be effective, according to Butz. 

People who forget their ID when  when they crawl out of their sick bed to buy cold medicine would be inconvenienced, while drug dealers would simply invest in false IDs for those who purchase pills, he said.

And, Butz said, it is unlikely that the Legislature would have the money to compile a statewide list to analyze for unusually high purchases of pills by individuals. 

"This is simply another feel-good legislation that is totally ineffective in stoping meth," he said. 

"There is no question that this proposal, to a very small degree, erodes our personal freedoms, and that is frustrating," said Bruning about the proposed restrictions.

But in today's world, he said, giving up some personal freedom is necessary to combat crimes. And consumers can still buy the products in gel and liquid forms without any inconvenience, he pointed out.

"The minor inconvenience, in my mind, is a worthwhile trade-off — to take the fuse away from the bomb," he said.

Restricting the purchase of pseudoephedrine seems to work. Oklahoma saw a 65 percent decrease in local meth labs after the state made it more difficult to purchase medications with pseudoephedrine, said Col. Tom Nesbitt, superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol. And more meth labs began showing up in neighboring states, he said.

Last year, law enforcement agencies found 245 meth labs in Nebraska, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The tougher sentences in the antimeth proposal are also intended to "dissuade meth manufacturers from setting up shop in Nebraska," said Johanns.

The proposed tougher sentences are intended to apply to the "dealers and the cooks. These penalties are not for the 18-year-old who makes a horrible mistake and begins using meth," said Bruning.

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.