Posted on 06/02/2009 10:01:51 PM PDT by Steelfish
Calif. bill would require Rx for cold pills
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
A crime-fighting bill moving through the California Legislature would force patients to get a doctor's prescription to buy a common remedy for stuffy noses.
The measure by Sen. Rod Wright, an Inglewood Democrat, would make it an infraction or misdemeanor to obtain ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or related drugs without a prescription.
Those are common ingredients in cold medicines, but they're also used to make illegal methamphetamine. Wright says he wants to get them out of drug dealers' hands.
But Sen. Sam Aanestad, an oral surgeon and Republican from Grass Valley, says prescriptions would boost the cost of a $4 bottle of nose spray to $40 or $50. He would rather limit the amount of medication one person can buy.
A 22-10 vote Tuesday sent the bill to the Assembly.
And I thought it stupid that I have to show my drivers license and sign for cold tablets.
I can tell you from experience it just makes getting a cold even more of a PITA, and it doesn't seem to have put even the slightest dent in the supply of meth or the number of meth dealers.
I thought that most of the meth came from Mexico these days where it is made in semi-industrial quantities. The thought of popping those little tiny pills out of their blister packs until you have enough to make meth is ridiculous.
Evidently not good enough....... gotta have a scrip.
...oh man. California...laughs...
The Walgreen’s brand I use, Wal-Phed, are behind the counter and I have to sign for them. They are the only ones that work for me. I’ve tried so many different brands, even Zyrtec, at $1.00 a pill.
It’s all about control!
Cold medicine is bad, but marijuana is good. Otay!
In dealing with any issue, the first inclination of any good collectivist, leftist, Democrat is to take freedoms away from law-abiding citizens. This is much easier than punishing criminals, and centralizes power in the hands of government.
Has it put a dent in the number of meth cooking operations?
We have done the "sign your name for cold pills" here in Minnesota and while I first thought the plan to be ridiculous, the number of meth cooking operations has almost fallen to nil.
At least the reports of manufacturing, that is.
When it comes to making life difficult for its citizens, California leads the way!
“...would make it an infraction or misdemeanor to obtain...”
Well, that’s a hard line, crime fighting bill, isn’t it? Especially when considered in the scheme of releasing those incarcerated for minor infractions or misdemeanors in order to reduce the cost to taxpayers for incarceration!
Bring back term limits legislation (crime fighting legislation 101)
gonna make tweaking more difficult...damn
Now this is just plain dumb.
I swear I can smell that through the screen
In California right now, there is a limit to how much pseudoephedrine you can buy in one day, so you can’t stock up on Dayquil when there is a sale. Also, the “good stuff” is behind the pharmacy counter at the grocery store. My pharmacist pulled me aside when she saw me buying the over-the-counter Sudafed and said I should be requesting the original if I want it to work. Personally, I think the mild mood altering effects of ephedra are a good thing. It’s like a rejuvenating cup of coffee, without the coffee breath! That’s pretty helpful if you are sick. I’m gonna miss that if a prescription is required.
lol
Doctor’s organizations just like teacher unions are mafias.
They just want to create monopolies for their memberships.
imagine having to aqualung that
I was just wondering if the limits on the cold pills corresponded with a decline with the manufacturing of meth in the local area where the limits were placed.
This is going to be horrible for the poor and working class like me. Im going to have to pay 75.00 for a doctor’s visit just to get a prescription. :P Damn Democrats.
I have allergies and this will hurt BAD.
Pretty much have to just to look at those choppers, ugh!
About 5 years ago, one of the big chains held an analysts visit to one of their drugstores to hear from the CEO, discuss the store design, efficient re-stocking methods, marketing, etc. When we passed the cold medicine section, he mentioned that the number one theft item in the store was Sudafed and the equivalent, because it was an ingredient in meth. They were in the process of moving all such remedies behind the counter. It wasn’t all versions of sudafed, just one that included a certain symptom which I can’t recall (runny nose, stuffy head, etc.)
I can sympathize somewhat with the Calif proposal. Normally not in favor of more regulation, but given that these medicines can be easily turned into an insidious drug, some safeguards should be explored.
A couple of months ago I had to show ID to buy “the real” Nyquil over the counter. I was like...What?
Hate to say that many in the GOP have been guilty of Nannisms.
They need to let the Dems be the party of interfere with your life.
I thought that most of the meth came from Mexico these days
Made in Mexico with the precursors from India.
Yea, but it’s a lot easier for those worthless bags of air wasting skin in Sacramento to pass this and then crow about “doing something about the problem” than to actually make inroads towards controlling the flow of base materials over the border...
before they started this totaly uncalled for restriction on Sudafed, the authorities KNEW that most all meth comes from Mexico...so instead of closing the borders, they’ll just keep making life harder for the citizens...
I can still remember the days here in NYC when I could walk into the corner drugstore and buy a 4oz bottle of Tussar, a cough syrup sold over the counter. It contained Dihydrocodeine, which is similar to Vicodin but stronger. It also contained ether and pseudoephedrine. Needless to say it worked wonders for a cold but even if it didn’t you didn’t care. It was finally made a precription drug because because of its abuse by teenagers. As soon as they took it off the market the kids turned immediately to heroin, and thus was born a whole generation of heroin junkies in NYC.
Sodium Chloride, especially when contaminated with iodine is far more dangerous to public health than cold medicine. California should require a prescription for everything sold over the counter that contains Sodium Chloride.
Yikes, not the infamous NaCl! With iodine?
Are you mad?
Do you not know the havoc you will wreak!
You’re worse than that little girl on the can,under the umbrella, spilling that vile stuff wherever she goes.
It did cause the decline of Mom and Pop cookers here in Indiana. But the Mexican meth which is purer and cheaper quickly moved in fill the vacuum.
Now that half the state is unemployed (except for the Mexicans who still seem to have jobs), those Mom and Pop cookers are finding they have too much time on their hands and are back at it.
These folks have discovered that if they send everyone they know to the drugstore to buy psuedoephedrine, they can get enough to cook with.
One way or the other, the vacuum will be filled.
Hoard nosespray.
Addicted? Why, I’ve been using that stuff for forty years. It’s not addicting.
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