JEFFERSON CITY, MO -- Dr. Stanley Dorst thinks patients will be frustrated if Gov. Jay Nixon and Attorney General Chris Koster get their way and make pseudoephedrine sales require a prescription.
Pseudoephedrine is an essntial ingredient in meth production.
Recent attempts to curve mass purchasing of pseudoephedrine include, making medicine with pseudoephedrine available at the counter and limiting the amount of pseudoephedrine people can purchase to 9 grams each month. The only problem is that you can go to multiple pharmacies and make the same purchase.
That's about to change come Jan. 1 when a new database starts tracking pseudoephedrine sales.
“I certainly think some kind of tracking and regulation makes a lot of sense given the abuse of psudoephedrine, whether we need to go to prescription versus using a computer tracking system, I think its really to early to tell how well the computer system will work,” Dorst said.
Missouri Pharmacist Association CEO Ron Fitzwater think consumers will suffer the consequences because of a small minority.
“They don't want to have to go get a prescription for a legal over the counter product, I mean most of us are hard working folks here in Missouri,” Fitzwater said.
If Nixon's proposal makes it through the legislature, pharmacist Darryl Hubble said people will be shocked by the changes.
“Because you'll have to pay a physician's office visit," Hubble said. "At the very least you may be able to get long term refills but its still going to be a cost that doesn't exist now.”
Hubble said he's looking forward to the new database and hopes legislators will take look at its success before they make pseudoephedrine a prescription only product.
Tell us what you think: Do you think requiring a prescription for pseudoephedrine will slow down meth production?
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