A legislative proposal by the Kentucky Narcotic Officers’ Association goes too far by attempting to require prescriptions for effective cold remedies now available over the counter.
The intentions of the drug enforcement officers who make up the statewide organization are good, but good intentions also can have unintentional consequences. The drug enforcement officers say requiring a prescription to purchase all cold remedies containing pseudoephedrine would reduce the production of methamphetamine in Kentucky.
Currently, medications containing pseudoephedrine are kept behind the counter, but a prescription is not necessary to purchase them. Instead, Kentucky uses an electronic tracking system for pseudoephedrine sales at pharmacies, with a limit of 9 grams a person over a 30-day period.
The law that took the cold remedies off the shelf and placed them behind the counter has been credited with greatly reducing the number of meth labs in the state. While meth labs still exist in Kentucky, the prescription drug epidemic has become a far more serious problem than meth in this region.
Requiring prescriptions to purchase cold remedies with pseudoephedrine may further reduce the number of meth labs in Kentucky, but it also would require those who would benefit most from the cold medications to first visit a doctor to get a prescription. That not only would increase the cost of the medication, but it also could reduce the effectiveness of it.
Our observation is that many of the cold remedies work best when taken when the first symptoms of a cold are detected. By being taken in the early stages of a cold, taking the common cold remedies can eliminate the necessity of a doctor’s visit.
We recognize that the pseudoephedrine found in common cold remedies is used by the unscrupulous to produce meth, but the vast majority of people who purchase the remedies do so for legitimate reasons. The current restrictions on the sale of medications with pseudoephedrine are adequate. They need not be expanded.
