- Cape Rolling Out Bloomfield Road Art Trail (8/21/19)1
- Donors Pledge Almost Two Grand To Replace SEMO's Possibly Sentient ‘Gum Tree' (8/16/18)
- SEMO and The Will To (Become A Consultant) – Part 2 (6/14/18)
- SEMO and The Will To Do (You Really Want To See That Legal Notice?) – Part 1 (6/4/18)
- Judge, Jury... Trashman (6/1/18)
- Diary of Cape Girardeau Road Deconstruction (5/11/18)
- Trying To Save A Tree From City “Improvements” (4/30/18)2
Prescription Sudafed??!!
Attempt by Local Legislators Derailed. This Time.
I don't get sick very often and when I do, I often try to self-medicate.
It's not that I dislike going to my doctor, but I'm a little like the Black Knight in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Like him, I could have my arms cut off and I would still be insisting it was just a flesh wound. I think it might be a guy thing.
My first step in curing a cold is usually to ignore it until my wife accuses me of having one and not doing anything about it.
My second step is to take some Nyquil and go to bed. That works about half the time.
I don't know how today's formula of Nyquil compares to the version I took as a kid, but it doesn't seem as effective. Maybe there's less alcohol.
When Nyquil doesn't work and one of my symptoms is nasal or sinus congestion I move on to step three, which involves Sudafed or one of the other off-the-shelf drugs that contain pseudoephedrine.
It's already a bit of a pain to buy Sudafed because the pseudoephedrine it contains is the key ingredient in the manufacturer of meth.
Currently in Missouri, if you want a box of Sudafed you have to go to a store that has a pharmacy and request it from the clerk behind the counter who then records your driver's license. State law limits an individual user to no more than 9 grams or approximately six 24-dose boxes of Sudafed every 30 days.
Before this law was passed, meth-heads could just walk into any store and buy up their entire supply of Sudafed leaving nothing for people who were actually sick.
As I said, the current law is a pain, but it is understandable and I feel it is a worthwhile inconvenience.
However, it rather irritated me that two of our local legislators -- Senator Jason Crowell of Cape and House Representative Scott Lipke of Jackson -- recently tried to further restrict the access to Sudafed by attempting to have the state classify pseudoephedrine as a narcotic that could only legally be obtained with a doctor's prescription.
Fortunately, wiser-heads prevailed in the legislature and this attempt to further restrict Sudafed and the like was defeated in the Missouri Senate.
Or, at least it was this time.
It wouldn't surprise me if the issue resurfaces again in the future.
In fact, Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon -- the only state that has pseudoephedrine classified as a narcotic requiring a doctor's prescription -- is working on introducing a similar federal law later this spring.
Missouri proponents for tightening up access to the drugs containing pseudoephedrine claim that gangs of meth-heads are now going from pharmacy to pharmacy, buying the limit at each one. Their belief is that by requiring people to have a prescription it will essentially wipe out the production of meth in our state.
I doubt it. The meth-heads would probably just score their Sudafed supply from one of our 8 neighboring states. Or buy them off the Internet. Or resort to good, old-fashioned burglary.
Further restricting easy public access to this useful drug is not the answer.
The real impact of any proposed law -- either state or federal -- will be felt by the average sick citizen who just wants their cold to go away and not the meth-heads. This will just cost consumers money in lost wages and completely unnecessary doctor bills.
Yes, drugs containing pseudoephedrine can be used for illicit activities.
However, Malatov cocktails are illegal too, but there aren't any laws restricting consumers the right to have gasoline, glass containers and rags.
Rather than attempting to legislate away the easy access rights of average Missourians to useful medications like Sudafed in an effort to curtail the illicit activities of what is likely a tiny percentage of the population, perhaps Senator Crowell and Representative Lipke -- and for that matter, Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon -- should look into repairing the existing law that appears to be ineffective.
If we have a lousy tracking system that is easily circumvented, then we need to fix it and not create more laws that cost the average citizen more money and add to an already over-burdened health-care system.
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My Google Search Update for this week held almost steady dropping from 346 last week to 342.
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