Pseudoephedrine is one of the few drugs I buy, because it works. And every time they have to treat me like a meth addict begging for one more hit. The last place told me that my driver’s license expiration was incorrect in the national database so they can’t sell to me until I correct that - but they don’t know how that is done. Since I can only get 24 pills at a time it is hardly worth the trouble of being treated like a meth addict. Why don’t they just make the stuff illegal?
I am curious how these rules are made? What is the government agency that just gets to make up rules about what drugs are legal?
Oh yeah. I wasn’t skinny by any means, I’m too large-framed for that, but I shed bad pounds and put on some rock-hard muscle. Considering the long-term damage I may have done to myself, it wasn’t worth it.
I would’ve called him on it then and there. You’re the customer, you’re not breaking the law, and he’s some putz pharmacist making 40 grand a year. Who the hell is he to judge you?
When I worked at a Walgreens in northwest Arkansas, we had issues with coordinated groups of people getting others to buy Sudafed. They would send in two or three people to buy Sudafed, then one or two other people would come in and steal instant cold compresses, iodine, and lithium batteries, along with whatever else was in their path. I’m not sure why they wanted the batteries, the cold compresses, or the iodine, but I was told you could use them to make drugs.
I suppose there’s one advantage to being a big guy: I don’t look much like a druggie.
I’ve never had a real problem with buying pseudoephedrine. The stores I go to have little plastic placards stocked in the aisle. Grab one, take it to the pharmacy, they retrieve the box, you fill out the form and get it rung up. It’s a pain, but not very intimidating, and the pharmacist has never treated me as anything more than a fellow person being inconvenienced by the process.
Yeah, I usually get the two drugs separately as well. I can’t find the prices of generic pseudephedrine online (:rolleyes:), but off the top of my head I think it’s $5-$10 for a 20-pack of 12-hour pills. You might easily cut you medications costs in half by getting generics.
That’s generally true for me also, but one time I went in to my local CVS (where I’ve been a customer for about 8 years) near closing time and tried to get a pack… the pharmacist exchanged glances with the manager and said “We’re all out.”
I’ve never had a problem buying it. Once had to sign a paper register, and more recently a credit-card type signature screen. I rarely buy it, though. I have sinus issues and it does work fairly well for congestion (unlike oral phenylephrine a.k.a. “new formula” Sudafed, which did precisely nothing), but it makes me feel edgy as hell, and— well, let’s just say sinus tissue is not the only thing that shrinks when I take it.
I’m aware of the rationale for all the record-keeping now, but I don’t understand why the purchase of a single box would invite so much scrutiny and suspicion.
I don’t get it either. The reason it continues to be sold at all is, hey, it’s an effective drug with a legitimate use.
I mean, if someone wants to buy out the store’s entire stock, that’s an eyebrow raiser at the very least. But if someone wants a single box, don’t make the poor bastard dealing with a cold go through any more trouble than he has to.
$40k? I don’t think there are any pharmacists that have made that little since the 80’s. We are making like 3 times that nowadays.
I don’t know if they were telling the truth, since that is the classic line when we don’t want to sell something or fill a script… However, CVS got into some trouble due to their psudoephedrine selling practices a while back, resulted in a BIG fine, and the loss of all the profits from psudoephedrine sells. Since then, CVS corporate has been much more strict, and has actually limited the amount of psudoephedrine products shipped to their stores. So… It is possible they actually were out.
Nationally? Congress is the ones who set up all the rules and regulations on psuedoephedrine sales, as part of the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005. However, the various states have made a lot of their own rules, which might be stricter then the national requirements.
Personally, I have no problem selling psudoephedrine, it is my nasal decongestant of choice, and I recommend it to all my patients. In my experience it works much better then phenylephrine. However, I have seen some shady people try to buy the maximum amount they can, and they always seem to ask for Sudefed 24hr or 12hr.
I go in, say, “I want to buy as much as I can buy legally” and sign the stuff. Either I am immune to the stinkeye or I just look so much like a suburban housewife that they can’t imagine me doing drugs.
You should come to MO (we are, or were, meth-producing capital of the US). They’re seriously considering making all OTC drugs that are behind-the-counter currently prescription only. Because I really want to go to the doctor every time I need some Claritin-D.
It’s not a St Louis county thing yet but most of the little burgs in the county are prescription only. I don’t understand how they can do that but they are.
I wonder if that includes possession? And if I have a script, doesn’t that give me some protection from the prying eyes of the man? <- iffy?
I hate being punished because of a few assholes. Meth labs, puppy mills and buck toothed hillbillies. And that’s just our elected officials.
MOSux
