Should pseudoephedrine be by prescription only in Oklahoma?

[Conan71]

Doesn't stop straw purchasing which happens now anyhow due to registering quantities purchased.  This is an example of a product which could be removed from the shelves and the problem of domestically-crafted meth would virtually disappear overnight.  Instead the pharma lobby continues to keep this from happening.

[patric]

How do you not hear someone gagging on their own urine?

A follow-up to the story:

A college student mistakenly left in a Drug Enforcement Administration interrogation room for five days will receive $4.1 million from the government in a settlement in advance of a lawsuit.

The bizarre event in April 2012 began when Daniel Chong, an engineering student at UC San Diego, went to a house near campus to smoke marijuana with friends and found himself swept up in a DEA raid.

After being questioned briefly at the DEA facility in San Diego, he was told he would be released. But, for reasons that remain unclear, he was left for five days in a 5-by-10-foot windowless room without food, water or toilet facilities.

He suffered hallucinations and was forced to drink his urine to survive. He screamed for help.

Fearing he would die, he broke his glasses and scrawled the message, "Sorry, mom" on his arm.

When he was discovered by DEA employees, he was covered in his own feces and severely dehydrated. He was rushed to a hospital, close to kidney failure and breathing with difficulty. He spent five days in the hospital.

Days later, a top DEA official apologized to Chong and ordered an "extensive view" of DEA procedures.

[heironymouspasparagus]

A follow-up to the story:

A college student mistakenly left in a Drug Enforcement Administration interrogation room for five days will receive $4.1 million from the government in a settlement in advance of a lawsuit.

The bizarre event in April 2012 began when Daniel Chong, an engineering student at UC San Diego, went to a house near campus to smoke marijuana with friends and found himself swept up in a DEA raid.

After being questioned briefly at the DEA facility in San Diego, he was told he would be released. But, for reasons that remain unclear, he was left for five days in a 5-by-10-foot windowless room without food, water or toilet facilities.

He suffered hallucinations and was forced to drink his urine to survive. He screamed for help.

Fearing he would die, he broke his glasses and scrawled the message, "Sorry, mom" on his arm.

When he was discovered by DEA employees, he was covered in his own feces and severely dehydrated. He was rushed to a hospital, close to kidney failure and breathing with difficulty. He spent five days in the hospital.

Days later, a top DEA official apologized to Chong and ordered an "extensive view" of DEA procedures.

Above the law...

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be...DEA without end...Amen

[Townsend]

Big pharma's role in meth production

http://news.yahoo.com/big-pharma-s-role-in-meth-production-151900012.html

The U.S. has seen a proliferation of meth labs since the early 2000s, and pharmaceutical companies are partly to blame, Mother Jones reports.

According to the magazine, the number of meth sites busted by police has increased 63 percent nationwide since 2007. In Kentucky alone, the number of sites discovered has more than tripled in the same time frame.

The steep rise in production is mostly a result of the "shake-and-bake" or "one-pot" method of cooking meth that gained popularity in the mid-2000s. This simplification of the way that meth is synthesized from pseudoephedrine — a decongestant in popular cold and allergy medicines like Sudafed — meant that meth cookers had all the ingredients they needed with just a handful of cheap, over-the-counter ingredients. Complicated chemistry sets gave way to basic kitchenware, while production shifted to poor, rural America.

While lawmakers in 25 states have attempted to make pseudoephedrine a prescription drug, the efforts have proved successful in just two: Oregon and Mississippi. The reason why so few of these bills have become laws? Big pharma, the magazine said.

Across the country, drug manufacturers and retailers have mounted a powerful lobbying effort to maintain easy access to the decongestant. According to Mother Jones, big pharma makes an estimated $605 million on pseudoephedrine-based products a year.
"It frustrates me to see how an industry and corporate dollars affect commonsense legislation," Kentucky state attorney Jackie Steele told Mother Jones.

In 2004, the drug industry fought a long and costly battle against a bill to put pseudoephedrine behind the counter in Oregon, claiming the proposed legislation would do little to curb the proliferation of meth labs in the Beaver State around that time.

According to Rob Bovett, a lawyer for the drug task force in Oregon's Lincoln County, drug companies and retailers "flooded our Capitol building with lobbyists from out of state."

The bill became a law in 2006, and the number of meth lab busts in Oregon has dropped 96 percent since then. Meanwhile, drug companies have doubled their lobbying efforts in states such as Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and Indiana — the top four states for meth lab busts in the country.

Since 2009, 23 states have attempted to pass bills to make pseudoephedrine a prescription drug and only one — Mississippi —has succeeded. According to the Magnolia State's narcotics bureau, the number of drug-endangered children dropped 81 percent within a year of the bill's passage.

[patric]

Big pharma's role in meth production

http://news.yahoo.com/big-pharma-s-role-in-meth-production-151900012.html

And CVS is getting into the performance art by making people register when they buy fingernail polish remover.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

And CVS is getting into the performance art by making people register when they buy fingernail polish remover.

CVS is big pharma, they own the largest prescription benefits management company in the US. CVS Caremark.

During Fall 2006, Caremark Rx, a pharmacy benefits management [PBM] company, was facing fierce acquisition from Express Scripts, an opposing PBM. CVS/Pharmacy entered into the sale, offering a cash/stock mix, board seats, and a merge with CVS's existing Pharmacare PBM. Though touted as a merger, CVS acquired Caremark Rx on March 22, 2007 renaming the company CVS Caremark Corp. and the corporate headquarters remained in Woonsocket, RI.[17] The pharmacy services business, including the combined pharmacy benefits management (PBM), specialty pharmacy, and disease management businesses, is headquartered in Nashville, TN. Tom Ryan, the Chairman & CEO of CVS remained president and CEO of CVS Caremark Corporation, while Caremark's Edwin Crawford became the Chairman of the Board.[17] On November 7, 2007 Edwin Crawford quit his position, and Tom Ryan was again named Chairman of the Board.[18]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CVS_Caremark#Caremark

[heironymouspasparagus]

CVS is big pharma, they own the largest prescription benefits management company in the US. CVS Caremark.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CVS_Caremark#Caremark

And from first hand experience it has been a cluster ever since.  Talk about price fixing, collusion, anti-trust...you name it, they are indulging.  But since we have gutted all regulatory entities in this country since Reagan...well, that's just too bad.

[DolfanBob]

I just took a Sudafed 12 hour. I feel so criminal. 

[nathanm]

Talk about price fixing, collusion, anti-trust...you name it, they are indulging.

My SO's insurance just went to this new thing where they will only pay for drugs purchased from CVS and whatever mail order house they are associated with. Well, that's not precisely true. If it's not a recurring thing you can get it anywhere, but you always have to pay (up to) the copay that applies to brand name non-preferred drugs even if you actually get a generic that's on their preferred list. So basically no benefit on most drugs at most pharmacies.

Seems collusive to me...

[patric]

CVS has second thoughts:


After thoroughly reviewing our policies for the sale of products that contain acetone, in most states we will no longer require customers to present an ID to purchase these products, including nail polish remover. Our stores will be notified about this change by the end of the day today and it will take effect beginning tomorrow.

To comply with certain regulations requiring retailers to record sales of products containing ingredients used in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine, we will continue to require ID for the purchase of acetone products in Hawaii and the purchase of iodine products in California, Hawaii and West Virginia.

[heironymouspasparagus]

My SO's insurance just went to this new thing where they will only pay for drugs purchased from CVS and whatever mail order house they are associated with. Well, that's not precisely true. If it's not a recurring thing you can get it anywhere, but you always have to pay (up to) the copay that applies to brand name non-preferred drugs even if you actually get a generic that's on their preferred list. So basically no benefit on most drugs at most pharmacies.

Seems collusive to me...

It is.  Sounds like AT&T...that's what those clowns have done.

[heironymouspasparagus]

I think a much bigger question has emerged that should concern us all, not just in Oklahoma, but apparently nationwide....

Should Twinkies be by prescription only??

I just bought my first box of new Twinkies over the weekend and they are all gone now!!  Box of 10....well, there were 5 people helping to eat them, but this could turn into the next badly addictive substance to overrun our schools!!  Serious discussion should be made and a well thought out decision of whether to allow these things to just creep throughout society and do their nefarious worst!!



And the air conditioner broke this afternoon, so one must console oneself with the tools at hand!!

[patric]

Four agencies in Cherokee County: the Sheriff's Office, The Tahlequah Police Department, District 27 District Attorney's Drugs and Violent Crimes Task Force and Cherokee Nation marshals teamed up to catch people buying more pseudoephedrine than the state law allows.
The truck was pulled over after undercover agents saw the people inside buying items in Walmart used to make meth such as Claritin, batteries and a light bulb.
http://www.fox23.com/content/crime/story/Law-enforcement-cracks-down-on-meth/aDQED-sbc0yE8aFOiMNCGQ.cspx

What tipped them off, a light bulb?   

Staking out Walmarts with four police agencies has to be a bit crowded, and where does the money come from to do that?

[patric]

The war on cold medicine still doesnt seem to be working:



"The suspects had bought 150 boxes of pseudoephedrine last year and 15 boxes just last month"
Led by the Sheriff Office's Thug Task Force, authorities had been tracking activity at the ranch for the last six months.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/crimewatch/authorities-dozen-arrested-in-rogers-county-meth-investigation/article_acbbd17a-cb04-11e3-beb7-001a4bcf6878.html


Thug Task Force?

[DolfanBob]

Patric. I heard that last night too. Thug Task Force. That's a new term for me also.