I’m the reverse of some there - I don’t need allergy medicine, I don’t think. Don’t get runny nose, watery eyes, red eyes, sneezing, etc. At least, rarely. What I do get are sinus headaches. Pseudoephedrine and ibuprofen is my go-to (pseudoephedrine only if I take it when I first feel the pressure in my ears, both if I already have a headache). Luckily, that’s much cheaper, at maybe $5.50 for 48 pills. Still inconvenient to have to wait in line and even more problematic if I accidentally run out (which I only did once) - because I live 20 miles from the nearest pharmacist. Glad it’s just two of us with sinus issues in the house, though. Can’t imagine trying to manage with the limit and several kids and all of us with colds. And I know the most common alternative, phenylephrine, hasn’t tested any better than placebo when taken orally, so I’m not going to get that.
How times change. When I was just a podling, say about the invention of dirt, the maternal unit was gifted with a cough syrup recipe from the Pediatrician: equal parts Honey, Lemon juice and whisky.
Today, of course, he would be lynched. But dang, it works! And it never goes bad in the fridge:rolleyes:
It means if you were a “smurf” for “meth cooks” (watch Breaking Bad), the State has all the evidence they need for a warrant if you were letting them scan your real driver’s license. Someone actually buying 3 packs every single day is engaging in obviously suspicious activity and it would be simple to add their name to a list of leads to investigate.
I actually sort of like this policy, at least you can get an adequate amount of cold medicine. Down here in Texas, there’s a hard limit to how much you can get per month. It means if you and your kid suffer from allergies and need regular sudafed, you’re going to have a tough time getting enough medicine at all.
At least it’s cheap here, HEB and Kroger sell the generic equivalent for $3-$7 a box, depending on quantity.
What I find intensely annoying about this crap is that you can be standing outside the pharmacy waiting for it to open at 9am with the worst cold, and you can’t get the drugs you need because they are controlled. Very irritating.
Seriously? I’ve never found a cough medicine that works (at least not OTC, never tried opiates like codeine).
I’ll try the Honey, lemon juice and whiskey cocktail sometime.
As to OP, get used to it. You probably won’t be able to buy Robitussin or Imodium AD in the near future due to people using them recreationally.
You aren’t buying Claritin. You’re buying Claritin-D, which is loratadine combined with pseudoephedrine. Generic loratadine purchases are not tracked.
Claritin is considered a non-drowsy antihistamine. For more than 90% of people it does not induce drowsiness. The D stands for “decongestant” and is pseudoephedrine, which is indeed a decongestant, and one of the most common side effect of it is stimulation, the exact opposite of “makes you drowsy”.
Claritan is “non-drowsy”
Claritan-D is “stimulating”
Codeine cough syrup is better than OTC ones and really does suppress your cough.
The two ingredients I see most commonly in OTC cough syrups are dextromethorphan, which inhibits coughing, and guaifenesin, which thins mucus. Neither of which has a particularly strong effect and for some seems to do nothing to help, as you note.
Which for many works as well as the guaifenesin/dextromethorphan combo. If the first one doesn’t work have another one or two at which point you might not care so much about having a cold any more.
This could happen. My state has already instituted an age requirement for purchase.
I know about “tussin” and “purple drank”. But what do people do with Imodium?
Imodium is an opiate, that is why it helps with diarrhea (constipation is a side effect of opiates).
However Imodium is pumped out of the brain just as quickly as it passes into the brain. But if you combine it with other drugs that block the pump that kicks it out of the brain, it can provide a mild high. Supposedly nothing special though, maybe at best like a couple vicodin.
However the real power in Imodium is in helping ease the physical withdrawal symptoms of heroin detox.
I thought you needed a doctor’s prescription to buy any pseudoephedrine in NJ, same as in Oregon.
And yet, at least around here, you can buy pure dextromethorphan capsules 20 to a bottle. No limit in California as far as I know though the check-out person might look at you funny if you buy 6 or 7 containers of the pills.
So much easier to get that cough syrup high by taking pills instead of drinking two or three bottles of god-awful cough syrup. Yeah, if I have a bad cough I would rather take a caplet or two than drink nasty syrup but those pills sure are a convenient shortcut to getting a Robo-buzz.
There’s already a number of stores that don’t carry the capsules. I imagine the pills will go to prescription first and then the syrups.
AFAIK it’s Oregon and Mississippi. You must be thinking of needing a prescription to pump your own gas. 
aking otc Claritin and montelukast for allergies, plus too much D and various cough remedies. Nothing worked.
My doctor has bypassed all that and started me on steroids. Steroids needed none of the paperwork that pseudoephedrine needs. I guess people haven’t been able to figure out how to abuse them yet.:dubious:
Are you really being punished? Or are you just enduring a minor inconvenience in exchange for helping alleviate a public health and safety problem that is causing incredible suffering to thousands of your fellow human beings?
In other words, instead of thinking of it as “bad people need to be punished,” think of it more as “spreading out the burdens so they don’t fall heavily on any one person is making the community and the world I live in happier, safer, and less expensive.”
I, for one, see no problem with punishing law-abiding purchasers with limits, hindrances, and paperwork. If it saves just one life…
Try buying it around us (I live in the same basic area as kayaker) wearing a set of colors (motorcycle vest with patches) and a scruffy beard. I don’t think there is a pharmacist in Allegheny or Butler Counties who actually believes I have sinus issues. Well I do dammit and I get tired of having shills buy it for me. :smack:
On cost – as kayaker said it did go up but there are some cheap options around here; Sam’s Club for example is just over $5 for their brand where CVS is just over $10 for their brand.
I see what you did there…
The best example of this “protecting everyone because some people are stupid” is Seldane.
The best allergy medicine I ever used. But somehow, some people managed to ignore the ubiquitous warnings to NEVER, EVER take Seldane with antibiotics.
The warnings were in magazines, newspapers, and TV news. The doctor warned you. The pharmacist warned you. The package warned you. Yet still, some people committed suicide by stupidity, and I get to suffer from allergies.
I’m pretty sure someone who does cognitive research wouldn’t call that “suicide by stupidity.” The human brain is not a computer that can efficiently process an infinite number of instructions.
My local pharmacy must have gotten in dutch with the DEA, because they’re extremely particular about selling any kind of potentially abusable drug; they’ll even strip search me (exaggerating, though only slightly) for buying Robitussin, which no other store blinks at. They’ve even outright refused to fill my hydrocodone/oxycontin prescriptions a few times.
The human brain is very capable of ignoring the same instructions repeated over and over if said owner of the brain chooses to because of a incorrect feeling of invincibility or superiority.
Says someone who hasn’t tried to buy a gun recently I think.