North Dakota regulations that limit cold medicine sales should be tightened further to deny illegal drug makers a key ingredient for manufacturing methamphetamine, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says.

Stenehjem spoke Monday in favor of legislation, introduced by Rep. Blair Thoreson, R-Fargo, to limit the sales of some types of cold pills to 64 tablets on a single trip to the drugstore. Cold medicine buyers are now limited to 96 pills at once.

Thoreson's bill also would require stores to monitor or restrict access to the medicine. They may choose to videotape, keep the drugs within sight of the counter, or display only one package of each brand at the time.

Some brands of cold pills have a compound called pseudoephedrine that can be used to make the illegal stimulant methamphetamine.

"The stores in North Dakota do not want to make money this way," Stenehjem said.

After hearing testimony on the legislation Monday, the House Judiciary Committee recommended that the full House approve the bill.

Stenehjem said the bill will make it harder for small meth labs to get their most important ingredient. The smaller operations use people who buy one or two packages of cold pills and bring them back to the lab, he said. The new requirements will draw clerks' attention to frequent cold-pill buyers more quickly, the attorney general said.

The North Dakota Grocers Association is backing the measure, and Stenehjem said he worked with trade groups to develop anti-meth measures that would be workable for small stores. He said the bill also could help deter shoplifting of cold pills.

Thoreson said it would "give our state and our lawmakers the tools to make it harder to make methamphetamines."

Stenehjem said new cold medicines with pseudoephedrine substitutes could influence the Legislature in another two years.

"We may come back next session and see if pseudoephedrine is something we want on the shelf at all," he said.

The bill is HB1346.