A bill before the legislature could make it easier to stop people from stockpiling cold medicines that can be used to make methamphetamine.

A bill before the legislature could make it easier to stop people from stockpiling cold medicines that can be used to make methamphetamine.

House Bill 334, introduced in September, would require pharmacies to link to a national database of purchases of pseudoephedrine or ephedrine, which can be a key ingredient in the street drug that has ravaged rural areas and endangered public safety with its manufacture in illicit labs that are prone to explosion. Laws limit how much of the drugs a person can buy, but meth-makers get around those limits by buying their limit at multiple pharmacies in multiple states.

The National Precursor Log Exchange (NPLEx), an electronic system maintained by the pharmaceutical industry, would be a much stronger tool for law enforcement than the current requirement that customers sign for purchases of the cold-and-allergy drugs in question. Signing takes a certain amount of time and produces only a log for each pharmacy.

That gives no way for a pharmacist to spot a suspicious buyer. After suspicion is raised by some other means, law enforcement can gather paper logs and compile evidence against big buyers, but that doesn�t do enough to prevent meth-cooking.

With the NPLEx system, a pharmacy employee could record purchases with the swipe of a driver�s license or state ID. Within seconds, the employee would know if the customer already has bought his limit of the so-called precursor drugs, and would be authorized to refuse the sale.

Seventeen other states already require pharmacies to plug in, and the CVS, Meijer and Rite-Aid chains already are using the system voluntarily nationwide. Little wonder; in 2010, CVS was hit with a $75 million fine as part of a settlement with the Drug Enforcement Agency for failing to monitor purchases of precursor drugs carefully enough. Giving all pharmacies the same tools to spot and stop abuse could begin to make a dent in a scourge that has wasted bodies and destroyed lives throughout the country.

The proposed Ohio law requires that the NPLEx system be made available to pharmacies at no cost to them or to taxpayers; the industry group that maintains it would provide them with the equipment needed. Stores that lack the ability to electronically swipe cards would enter information manually, using an Internet-based portal. The bill says that, should the industry group stop covering the cost of using the system, pharmacies no longer would be required to link to it.

Backers of the bill are working with the Ohio Pharmacists Association to hammer out amendments to make sure that no costs would fall on pharmacists.

A no-cost way to fight back against the spread of this destructive drug is worth trying.