drdªv€
10-08-2006, 02:22 PM
Sudafed and its chemical cousins officially abandon the shelves and take their places behind pharmacy counters Sunday, the result of federal legislation aimed at slowing the spread of methamphetamine.
With the new restrictions, which follow state regulations put in place in mid-2005, lawmakers have succeeded in making pseudoephedrine and two similar chemicals a lot harder to come by for home-and-garage labs brewing the illicit street drug.
They've also made getting a cure for the sniffles more time-consuming for the everyday consumer, since the ingredient is used in virtually all decongestants.
The tougher rules require the items be sold from behind pharmacy shelves or from a locked case. Buyers must provide a state or federal identification and log their name, address, date of purchase and how much of the drug was purchased. Logbooks are kept two years by the store and are open for examination by the Drug Enforcement Administration, as well as other state and federal law enforcement authorities.
The pharmaceutical industry has tried to adapt to the changes by reconstituting many of the products and eliminating the offending ingredient. But while the new products can be sold over the counter, there is some question about whether they work.
Brace yourself: Federal authorities may have another cluster of drugs in their sights, a list that includes such humble bromides as Alka-Seltzer Plus and Vicks 44 Cough Relief.
As the popularity of methamphetamine has grown, so have the sales, and theft, of cold and allergy drugs from store shelves containing the restricted ingredients. Cooking up a batch is dangerous, too: Toxic chemicals drench the premises from roof to root, rendering it fit only for a hazmat team. Sometimes, even surrounding soil has to be removed.
Drugstore crackdowns do seem to curb the number of homegrown meth labs. But another source has popped up to meet demand.
In Texas, for instance, kitchen-brewed meth began drying up just months after that state passed its own laws on drugstore sales. But that led to more meth being smuggled in from Mexico, and in an especially pure form: Mexican Ice. That was also the case with Oklahoma, one of the first states to experiment with drugstore sales.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement acknowledges much of this state's meth comes from out-of-state labs, not suburban kitchens. However, eliminating the local labs — and their publicly funded cleanup — is a step forward, said FDLE Special Agent Rick Zenuch in an earlier interview.
Make that a hesitant step. Rules for how pharmacies handle sales came out only 10 days ago. Kevin Nicholson, vice president of pharmacy regulatory affairs for the association of drugstores, says at least some retailers won't get their DEA paperwork approved by today, "and until they get that certification, they can't sell the products."
Still unresolved are questions of whether the personal information in logs conflicts with stringent federal rules on a person's right to medical privacy.
Other ingredients in off-the-shelf drugs are also attracting attention. In August, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America reported its survey of more than 7,300 teens found one in 10 had used cough medicine to get high. Federal lawmakers this summer proposed restricting bulk sales of dextromethorpham, or DXM, the active ingredient in a broad array of cough medicines, including Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold & Cough, Tylenol Cold products and Vicks 44 Cough Relief products.
The federal proposal would have affected those pharmacists who buy ingredients, then mix and measure them. States, though, have also shown interest in restricting sales, says Nicholson. And last year, Walgreen Co. — which sells more than 200 products containing DXM — programmed its cash registers to bar sales of all products containing the cough ingredient to anyone younger than 18.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/con...drine_0930.html (http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2006/09/30/s1a_ephedrine_0930.html)
With the new restrictions, which follow state regulations put in place in mid-2005, lawmakers have succeeded in making pseudoephedrine and two similar chemicals a lot harder to come by for home-and-garage labs brewing the illicit street drug.
They've also made getting a cure for the sniffles more time-consuming for the everyday consumer, since the ingredient is used in virtually all decongestants.
The tougher rules require the items be sold from behind pharmacy shelves or from a locked case. Buyers must provide a state or federal identification and log their name, address, date of purchase and how much of the drug was purchased. Logbooks are kept two years by the store and are open for examination by the Drug Enforcement Administration, as well as other state and federal law enforcement authorities.
The pharmaceutical industry has tried to adapt to the changes by reconstituting many of the products and eliminating the offending ingredient. But while the new products can be sold over the counter, there is some question about whether they work.
Brace yourself: Federal authorities may have another cluster of drugs in their sights, a list that includes such humble bromides as Alka-Seltzer Plus and Vicks 44 Cough Relief.
As the popularity of methamphetamine has grown, so have the sales, and theft, of cold and allergy drugs from store shelves containing the restricted ingredients. Cooking up a batch is dangerous, too: Toxic chemicals drench the premises from roof to root, rendering it fit only for a hazmat team. Sometimes, even surrounding soil has to be removed.
Drugstore crackdowns do seem to curb the number of homegrown meth labs. But another source has popped up to meet demand.
In Texas, for instance, kitchen-brewed meth began drying up just months after that state passed its own laws on drugstore sales. But that led to more meth being smuggled in from Mexico, and in an especially pure form: Mexican Ice. That was also the case with Oklahoma, one of the first states to experiment with drugstore sales.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement acknowledges much of this state's meth comes from out-of-state labs, not suburban kitchens. However, eliminating the local labs — and their publicly funded cleanup — is a step forward, said FDLE Special Agent Rick Zenuch in an earlier interview.
Make that a hesitant step. Rules for how pharmacies handle sales came out only 10 days ago. Kevin Nicholson, vice president of pharmacy regulatory affairs for the association of drugstores, says at least some retailers won't get their DEA paperwork approved by today, "and until they get that certification, they can't sell the products."
Still unresolved are questions of whether the personal information in logs conflicts with stringent federal rules on a person's right to medical privacy.
Other ingredients in off-the-shelf drugs are also attracting attention. In August, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America reported its survey of more than 7,300 teens found one in 10 had used cough medicine to get high. Federal lawmakers this summer proposed restricting bulk sales of dextromethorpham, or DXM, the active ingredient in a broad array of cough medicines, including Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold & Cough, Tylenol Cold products and Vicks 44 Cough Relief products.
The federal proposal would have affected those pharmacists who buy ingredients, then mix and measure them. States, though, have also shown interest in restricting sales, says Nicholson. And last year, Walgreen Co. — which sells more than 200 products containing DXM — programmed its cash registers to bar sales of all products containing the cough ingredient to anyone younger than 18.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/con...drine_0930.html (http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2006/09/30/s1a_ephedrine_0930.html)