Free Republic

Commentary “Experts have long doubted the effectiveness of phenylephrine,” which is a common ingredient in DayQuil, NyQuil, Sudafed, Mucinex, and others. This was National Public Radio on Wednesday morning, Sept. 13. It reminds me of Orwell: Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. They are telling us this 16 years after the FDA forced the ingredient as the substitute for a product that actually works, which is pseudoephedrine. To get the product with pseudoephedrine requires that you ask for it. It is kept behind the counter. Then you have to use your drivers’ license and there are restrictions on...

A Food and Drug Administration panel today unanimously ruled that a medicine used by millions for a stuffy nose does not work. Phenylephrine is the most common active compound in over-the-counter drugs like Benadryl Allergy Plus Congestion, Sudafed PE, and Tylenol Cold and Flu Severe Day & Night. But an FDA panel said after a two-day review that the oral decongestant ‘is not effective’ at standard or even high doses. Their ruling is not binding but it strongly suggests that the agency could soon heed their advice and pull its approval, which would force companies to pull or reformulate their...

As if our never-ending war on drugs hasn't already done enough damage (1), children are now in the cross-hairs. Counterfeit tablets of Adderall, a drug typically used to treat ADHD, containing high doses of pure methamphetamine are being seized in the Northeast, primarily in New Hampshire. Since children and teens primarily use Adderall, the manufacture of "Meth Adderall" pills is especially ghoulish. Feel free to blame the DEA for this latest debacle (2). The agency is responsible for the passage of a 2006 law that required the decongestant drug Sudafed to be labeled a controlled substance because its active ingredient,...

Okay—let’s look at the positives of this story. A Business Insider reporter, Hayley Peterson, tried to buy a gun at Walmart to test “the placement, selection, marketing, and security of firearms in Walmart's stores, and to learn more about the retailer's processes governing gun sales.” In other words, she wanted to make sure that background checks work. So, she’s going to try and buy a gun, which is something that tens of millions of Americans have already done. And she walked into a Walmart—a family-owned business that’s anathema to the Left. After the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, Walmart...

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 12, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new undercover video has exposed the fact that Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations are stricter for common cold medication than for the abortifacient drug Plan B. In the video, created by Students for Life, women posing as 15-year-old girls attempt to simultaneously purchase the "emergency contraceptive" Plan B, and the cold medicine Sudafed. The “teenagers” are asked for identification, and when they say they don't have any ID, are told they can’t purchase Sudafed. However, they are allowed to purchase Plan B. “I thought I didn’t need an ID for Plan...

PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. (Dec. 6, 2010) — Eastern District Commissioner Bill Farnham read a news brief on his desk Monday morning from the Missouri Association of County Clerks and got mad. The cause? A news brief about Gov. Jay Nixon’s announcement that he will back legislation to require prescriptions for pseudoephedrine-based cold medicines so the medicine can’t be used as the key ingredient in methamphetamine. “Why should you have to pay $100 for a doctor visit to get $6 worth of cold medicine all because of a bunch of meth heads?” Farnham asked. “I think they ought to just shoot...

<p>CINCINNATI -- A local money-laundering operation that allegedly shipped millions of dollars to the Middle East has been stopped with the arrest of the group's alleged ringleader and more than 20 other people, officials announced Thursday.</p> <p>Omran Saleh (pictured, below) was among 23 people arrested, most of whom are of Palestinian descent, Thursday, WLWT Eyewitness News 5's Brian Hamrick reported.</p>

WAKE FOREST, N.C. --North Carolina started enforcing its new law intended to stop the spread of methamphetamine labs on Sunday. Since 1999 the number of meth labs in the state has skyrocketed. Then the State Bureau of Investigation busted nine labs; in 2005 they discovered 328 of them. As of Jan. 15 you must be at least 18, show photo ID and sign a log if you want to by over-the-counter cold medicines such as Sudafed and Tylenol Cold. Both medicines contain either pseudoephedrine or ephedrine, which are key ingredients used to make meth. (snip) Under the new law you...

ROME, Ga., July 29 - When they charged 49 convenience store clerks and owners in rural northwest Georgia with selling materials used to make methamphetamine, federal prosecutors declared that they had conclusive evidence. Hidden microphones and cameras, they said, had caught the workers acknowledging that the products would be used to make the drug. But weeks of court motions have produced many questions. Forty-four of the defendants are Indian immigrants - 32, mostly unrelated, are named Patel - and many spoke little more than the kind of transactional English mocked in sitcoms. So when a government informant told store clerks...

Pfizer BrandsPrescription Aricept® (donepezil hydrochloride tablets) Bextra® (valdecoxib) Celebrex® (celecoxib) Lipitor® (atorvastatin calcium) tablets Relpax® (eletriptan HBr) Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) tablets Viracept® (nelfinavir mesylate) Xalatan® (latanoprost ophthalmic solution) Zoloft® (sertraline HCl) Zyrtec® (cetirizine HCl) Over-the-Counter Brands Benadryl Listerine Mouthwash Listerine PocketPaks Neosporin Purell Rogaine Rolaids Sudafed Visine Zantac Lets face it, if Pfizer had not wanted the land, then the SC never would have made the ruling. Hit Pfizer where it hurts, in the pocketbook.

AUSTIN -- Cold remedies such as Sudafed would be placed in secure counters in Texas drug stores, and records would be kept on who purchases it under legislation designed to combat the manufacture of methamphetamine that won unanimous Senate approval on Wednesday. "By requiring placement behind the pharmacy counter the ingredient that meth cooks must have, we will drastically reduce the ability of drug abusers to cook this highly volatile drug in our fields, neighborhoods, apartment complexes, hotels and even vehicles," said state Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, the legislation's author. Estes backed off from his earlier proposal in Senate...

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Gov. Mitch Daniels visited Vigo County, where the production of methamphetamine has been prolific, to sign legislation Tuesday that will restrict the sale of cold medicines containing ingredients used to make the drug. The law is similar to a Vigo County ordinance that has been in effect since January. State police reported that authorities found 166 meth labs in the county last year, the most among Indiana's 92 counties. The county also topped the state list in 2002 and 2003. The new law, enacted unanimously by the General Assembly last month, places restrictions on the sale...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Imagine that, with $100 worth of supplies bought from neighborhood stores, dealers could easily cook up $1,000 worth of a drug so addictive that users quickly descend into a hell of violence, crime and neglect. That frightening scenario is the reality of methamphetamine, a drug that is sweeping rural America, spawning crime, child abuse and toxic pollution and ripping apart communities. "It is out of control. It is a huge problem all across the United States," said Mike Logsdon, unit chief of an intelligence arm of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that collects data on the problem....