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Tuesday, August 23, 2005
It will last 7 days but a doctor can clear it up in a week
Carmalita, one of my three favorite pharmacists in the whole world, emailed me the following:
Oregon is First to Require Cold-Med Prescriptions
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed legislation Tuesday that will make Oregon the first state to require prescriptions for everyday cold and allergy medications that can be converted into methamphetamine. The requirement applies to any medication containing pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient in making meth. "This is a tremendous start, but we must recognize that it is just that, a start," the governor said. "We have a long way to go." Oregon and several other states already require consumers to show identification and sign a log when obtaining over-the-counter cold and allergy medicines such as Sudafed and Claritin D from pharmacies, and Congress is moving toward similar restrictions.
She went on to point out that this is happening at the same time companies are trying to get cholesterol lowering medications (that apparently can cause major liver problems if not monitored properly) to be sold over the counter. She worries that this will be a real pain for pharmacists and will raise health care costs as people are forced to head to their doctor for simple cold remedies and doubts that the insurance companies are going to want to pay for it. To say nothing about the poor guy with a runny nose and no health insurance who just wants to get his f'n nose to stop running! (OK, she didn't really say it like that.)
I think she makes a good point. Sure meth is a big, and growing, problem but this is overkill. Fine, make them keep it behind the counter, or restrict the number of boxes you can buy at one time or even mandate the package size be no more than 2 to 3 days supply. But don't make people go to the doctor for the sniffles.
Should it really be easier to get a gun in this country than it is to get a box of Sudafed?
2 Comments:
Since when was anything overkill when it comes to the War on Drugs. (by the way, are we making war on drugs, or making a war on drugs?) For years and years we have spent billions of dollars, vitiated the Fourth Amendment and given up a lot of personal liberties, and created a whole new criminal class and organized crime network, all in the name of stopping illegal drugs. What amazes me is that people still don't get it. It didn't work with prohibition, and it DOESN'T WORK NOW. Granted, drug addiction is not a good thing, but there has to be a better way of handling it than what we do now.
As for guns, why that's our god given right. It says so right there in the King James Bible, someplace.
By 
, at
2:02 PM
Most states already are trying to control the amount of psuedoephredine (the active in most over the counter cold remedies that acts as a sinus decongestant) by limiting sales to only 2 boxes per customer, as well as putting single ingredient products behind the counter. I think this is a much better way to control the situation if the government feels more control is needed. The pharmacist can still reccomend and sell the product if they feel they are appropriate therapy after consultation with a customer. Not fool proof - but I think requiring a prescription is overkill and will just add another problem to the already messes up health care system with it's costs that they cannot seem to contain. You will now need to pay a $40+ office visit first to go and buy that $4 box of medicine.
Carmeilita
By , at
7:00 AM
