OLYMPIA, Wash. - A bill by Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Roy, would set up an electronic system that would monitor the purchase of cold medicines, which contain ingredients used to make meth.
Current law keeps medicine with pseudo ephedrine behind the counter and pharmacies keep a written log of people who make purchases, but it doesn't prevent people from going store to store -- a method known as "smurfing."
The automated computer database would allow law enforcement to track purchases in real time.
"That will definitely help because our competitors will all be on board as well and we'll have a centralized computer system to log everybody who's buying pseudo ephedrine products," said Tyler Oatway, pharmacy manager at Bartell's in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood.
But the ACLU of Washington has privacy concerns.
"Unfortunately, the bill, as it's written now, doesn't restrict law enforcement's access to those records. There's not even a reasonable suspicion that you have to have committed some kind of crime or even exceeded the limits," said Shankar Narayan, legislative director for the ACLU of Washington.
The bill has passed out of one committee, but still has several votes to go before it could become law.
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