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March 12, 2010

Not wanted — 03/14/10

No Rx for cold medications

Anonymous The Daily Independent Fri Mar 12, 2010, 04:53 PM EST

Only 18 percent of Kentuckians who participated in a new poll said they supported legislation that would require prescriptions for cold and allergy medications containing pseudoephedrines.

As this is written, opponents of the measure apparently will get their way. Despite the support of the Kentucky Narcotic Officers Association, House Bill 497, which would require prescriptions to obtain medications containing pseudoephedrines, is stuck in neutral in the House Health & Welfare Committee.

In an effort to prevent the small minority of individuals who purchase medications with pseudoephedrines for the production of illegal and potentially deadly methamphetamines, HB 497 would require individuals to see a physician before purchasing common medications now available without prescriptions. That not only would greatly increase the cost of that medication but it also would lengthen the amount of time required to secure the medications. Since many of the cold medications are most effective when taken when the first symptoms of a cold are detected, the law also would reduce the effectiveness of that medication and could lead to more serious ailments.

In the Kentucky poll conducted by David Binder Research for the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, 74 percent of the respondents said the RX-only requirement for medications with pseudoephedrines would create an “unnecessary burden” for law-abiding citizens.

The survey found that 80 percent of Kentuckians prefer electronic tracking of PSE medicine purchases over requiring prescriptions.

Kentucky is one of only eight states that has adopted legislation requiring electronic tracking of medications that have pseudoephedrines and now are kept behind the counter but are available without prescriptions. Early indications are that what Kentucky is doing has been effective.

Since its implementation in July of 2008, the National Precursor Log Exchange (NPLEx) has blocked the purchases of about 5,000 medications a month, or 4.4 percent of the total, and law enforcement officers in Kentucky report that NPLEx has led to the majority of meth lab busts in the state since its inception.

The state’s drug enforcement officers are convinced that requiring prescriptions for all medications with pseudoephedrines will increase the effectiveness of their enforcement efforts, and they may be right. But we remain unconvinced that the benefits of the change would outweigh the cost of making it more difficult and more expensive for law-abiding citizens to get medications that are most effective in fighting colds and allergies.

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