Pubdate: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA) Copyright: 2009 Record Searchlight Contact: http://www.redding.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/360 Referenced: Senate Bill 484 http://drugsense.org/url/eLhHPuTd Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) PRESCRIPTION BILL TAKES METH FIGHT TOO FAR The typical doctor's office is busy enough without common-cold sufferers coming in for a prescription for cough medicine, but that's exactly what will happen if a bill that passed the state Senate last week becomes law. Senate Bill 484, by Sen. Rod Wright, a Southern California Democrat, would stretch the reasonable limits on the sale of pseudoephedrine-based cold medicines to absurd lengths. In the name of stemming methamphetamine, which users and dealers cook up from medicines containing pseudoephedrine, SB 484 would require a doctor's prescription for the over-the-counter remedies, which many find the best way to clear up their runny noses. If this were the best way to fight the plague of methamphetamine and the toxic labs where users distill it, we'd applaud the measure. But it's not. Existing restrictions on the sale of pseudoephedrine, part of a 2006 federal law sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, have already worked extraordinarily well. That law, as anyone who's tried to buy Sudafed lately knows, requires buyers to go to a pharmacy counter, show a photo ID, and sign for the medicine, which is only sold in small quantities. This simple limit causes some inconvenience when honest stuffy-headed citizens need it least, but the results are worth it. The National Drug Intelligence Center's 2009 methamphetamine report for the Pacific region says that from 2004 to 2008, the number of meth labs discovered on the West Coast fell 93 percent. Locally, Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko says the law has successfully shut down small meth labs and the toxic residue they leave behind. It hasn't, sadly, stopped methamphetamine abuse or sales, but the NDIC says that trade is largely fed by drugs manufactured in Mexico and smuggled across the border. Only a very small share of meth precursor chemicals could still be coming from ordinary retailers. And if drug cartels are still sending mules from pharmacy to pharmacy picking up one package of cold medicine at a time, there are records to check for patterns. California could even follow the lead of Oklahoma, which has a central database monitoring pseudoephedrine sales, preventing - or at least further complicating - illicit repeat buys. But requiring a prescription for ordinary cold medicine will only bring new crowds to clinics, drive up medical costs and pose a severe burden to honest citizens whose only crime is not having health insurance. Yes, there are alternative cold medicines. For the most part, though, they don't work as well. The north state has seen more than its share of lives ruined by meth, and residents are surely willing to put up with reasonable hassles if they'd keep the drug off the streets. But requiring prescriptions for pseudoephedrine puts a burden on the law-abiding far out of proportion to any expected gain. Our view: The existing limits on pseudoephedrine sales already work amazingly well. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake