FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- Drug companies that produce cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine -- a main ingredient in methamphetamine -- don't want Kentucky to require a prescription for the drugs.

A representative of companies that produce cold medicines suggested to the Interim Joint Committee on the Judiciary on Friday that lawmakers consider an alternative.

Carlos Gutierrez, with the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, said those convicted of meth crimes could be placed on a registry of people banned from buying the drugs, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

But Dan Smoot, who leads a drug task force in southeastern Kentucky, said a registry would not work because most of the people who make meth don't buy the cold medicines themselves.

A proposal to require prescriptions was hotly debated this year but never passed.

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