Posted on 06/02/2006 1:15:20 PM PDT by John Jorsett
Get ready to give up a little bit of your privacy in exchange for certain allergy or cold medicines.
Starting in late September, just in time for cold season, consumers will be required to fork over photo IDs and list their home addresses in logbooks before buying Sudafed, Contac or other remedies containing the nasal-decongestant pseudoephedrine or similar substances.
Some retailers already are asking for the information, which law-enforcement officials hope will help them fight the illegal production of methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug that can be made, in part, by "cooking" pseudoephedrine.
Consumers in Florida and many other states have grown used to sales restrictions on pseudoephedrine-containing drugs -- including their placement behind pharmacy counters instead of on store shelves.
But the latest rules, which also call for limits on purchases of up to 120 pills a day, are part of a federal effort to combat meth addiction.
Methamphetamine abuse is an increasing problem in the United States, with a recent report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration saying the number of users admitted to substance-abuse clinics more than quadrupled from 1993 to 2003. The problem is particularly acute in rural America, though the Orlando area also has seen a rise in meth labs.
For instance, last year the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration seized 115 meth labs in Central Florida. In 2000, it seized two.
Tracking sales is critical to stopping the spread of meth labs in Central Florida, said Stephen Collins, who heads the Orlando office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Collins said it was "very common" for meth makers to comb the region's stores for cold medicine needed to make the illicit drug.
"We had individuals that would canvass up and down Central Florida and the East Coast and hit numerous stores, buying as much as they could get their hands on," he said. "By limiting this, we hope to see the decrease in the number of labs."
The new regulations, passed in March as part of the USA Patriot Act, are being phased in over the next several months. They are stricter than Florida law and will override it, the Florida Retail Federation said.
Dawn Townsend, a pharmacist at Maitland Rexall Drug Store, said she just recently learned about the logbook rule and is in the process of teaching her staff what to do.
"I don't see it as a hassle," she added.
Industry groups say they expect sales of medicines that contain pseudoephedrine to decline as a result of the law. Already, drug makers are selling reformulated cold medicines that don't need to be placed behind the counter, such as Sudafed PE.
"Most big retailers saw this coming," Walgreen Co. (NYSE:WAG) spokeswoman Carol Hively said.
The rise of meth labs prompted several states, including Florida last summer, to pass laws restricting sales of pseudoephedrine-containing medicine. But while consumers may not mind limits on how much cold medicine they can purchase at one time, they may bristle at giving up personal information to buy it.
"The question here is, is it the job of pharmacies and pharmacists to be a policeman on these products [and] what are the privacy protections for people who legitimately buy these products and have their name recorded somewhere?" said Arthur Levin, director of the New York-based Center for Medical Consumers, a nonprofit advocacy group.
Drugstores say measures are in place to prohibit the disclosure of consumers' private information, which retailers must keep for up to two years after a sale. The federal law, for instance, prohibits retailers from disclosing private information except when a legal request is made by local, state or federal authorities.
"We don't have any intention to use it in any way except to make it available to the authorities," Walgreen's Hively said.
And helping those authorities fight illegal meth production is why Lydia McNeil, 60, of Orlando is willing to give up personal information to buy the Sudafed she uses to treat her colds.
"I wouldn't mind signing anything to keep it out of the hands of the people who are using it for the wrong reason," she said, after shopping at a Walgreens on Michigan Avenue in Orlando.
Though the federal law does not provide for a clearinghouse, so purchases could be tracked from store to store, some retailers are working on that approach themselves within their chains. Walgreens and CVS (NYSE:CVS) -- two of the nation's biggest drugstore chains -- said they are developing systems to monitor sales. Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) says it already uses an electronic logbook that can track purchases at individual outlets but not from store to store.
Marianne Myers, 45, who was shopping at an Albertsons (NYSE:ABS) on South Orange Avenue in Orlando, said she understood the motive behind the new measures but lamented the implications.
"It's probably a hassle for us," the Orlando resident said. "It's sad that things have to be like that."
I can understand keeping prescriptions on a database, simply because of the doctor shopping and painkiller addictions (Rush Limbaugh for example). But over-the-counter medications for allergies? I would take all my friends shopping, then "fan out" and buy as much as each could, then pool them and have our own supply to draw from.
No, the way it is going, getting crates of the stuff will only be a little more difficult than buying 12 capsules.
They inconvenience and waste the time of innocent people who only want some relief from cold / allergy symptoms;
With the same economic investment in time and money wasted by businesses and consumers with this, they could add hundreds of drug enforcement cops to go after the illegal substance manufacturers.
Wow...they get you without any foreplay!
Me? I won't ask the pharmacist and I won't show ID. Period.
I'll go to another store and/or buy another product like gelcaps.
This tightening of ability to get Sudafed type products was first started in Oklahoma. It actually has reduced our meth labs here, BUT I doubt it has reduced USAGE. I'm allergic to the stuff, but my sister says one feels as if they are purchasing something really bad when you buy this stuff! :-)
Even if somehow flow of psuedoephrine was cut off from foreign countries (which won't happen) you'll eventually see more sophisticated labs in the US, fewer people that larger, that get their raw materials other than buying it at stores - there are tens of thousands of delivery trucks, etc, potentially corrupt pharmacists, and you'll see whole boxes of the stuff "disappear" off trucks or out of storage rooms and warehouses before it ever reaches a shelf.
Without exception, trying to reduce use of controlled substances by reducing supply is a complete and abject waste of time and money.
Just do what the druggies do and have a friend along! :-)
Because it shouldn't be an issue. What happens after a product is legally purchased is none of the seller's business or concern. All kinds of people do all kinds of stupid stuff with all kinds of products after purchase, not the seller's problem, and forcing the seller to keep all kinds of extra data, inconvenience their customers, and increase their costs all because of the minority of idiots in the world is big government big brother stupidity.
And that's gay too. I now have to buy my Gillette Fusion blades behind the supermarket counter. I can't fathom why. I'm an adult. Just let me buy my damned products.
Yes.
Not if you are shopping for groceries at the same time.
Friend that is a probation officer says there is nothing harder to kick than meth. And there is nothing you won't do to get your next fix.
Someone will just start selling it on the Internet from some foreign country - like Viagra.
In this case things go behind the counter because the government has demanded that YOU be treated like a criminal.
It doesn't bring about personal responsibility, it destroys personal liberty. If I wanted to buy a bunch of cold medicines for the purposes of turning them into illegal drugs this wouldn't slow me down a bit, just get a few fake IDs, buy the legal limit at different stores and I'm golden. It accomplishes NOTHING except turn freedom into a hollow word.
If stores want to put things behind glass to prevent theft I'm all for it, their property their rules. Whenever anybody starts putting stuff behind glass because of what I "might" do after legally purchasing a product it becomes nannyism, when the government orders them to do this it's a violation of our legal rights. They're no longer presuming we're innocent, and they're gathering data on us for the purposes of prosecution without a warrant and without there even being any pre-existing evidence of a crime. It's sad, stupid and destructive of everything this country was founded on.
The inconvenience is not worth the payoff.
Yeppers.
I think you have to maybe buy your blades behind the counter because of all the shoplifting.
In my area they are at times behind the glass as well, and other times they are in the open.
I think that was a shoplifting issue, not the law turning your issue gay for you.
You won't stop meth availability this way.
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