Limits on legal drug help curb meth abuse

A federal bill intends to duplicate the success of state legislation by requiring pharmacist supervision for the purchase of cold medications containing pseudoephedrine.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. April 11, 2005.

Washington -- States are discovering that restricting the sale of certain cold medicines is going a long way toward reducing the enormous burden that methamphetamine use places on health and law enforcement services.

The federal government is now attempting to follow the states' lead with a bill introduced earlier this year that would restrict the sale of pseudoephedrine.

The manufacture and use of meth has been on the increase in recent years, especially in rural areas. Among the reasons for the stimulant's popularity is the ease with which it can be manufactured using readily available ingredients, such as pseudoephedrine.

Passage of a tough Oklahoma law last year, the first in the nation to require that pharmacists supervise the sale of such cold medicine to prevent theft or the purchase of large quantities, has been an effective deterrent.

"When the law was instituted, it was almost instantaneously that we began having fewer methamphetamine problems," said Doug Cox, MD, an emergency department physician and state legislator from Grove, Okla.

"A large number of psychiatric patients brought into the emergency room would test positive for methamphetamines," Dr. Cox said. "Once that law kicked in, we were seeing fewer of those folks."

In addition, the number of meth lab seizures in the state dropped by about 80%.

Patients apparently understand that there is a serious methamphetamine problem in Oklahoma and haven't complained about having to get cold medications from their pharmacists, Dr. Cox said.