why do I need an ID to buy cold medicine

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m watching the local news, there’s this little news piece. It’s about how a local pharmacist helped the feds bust up a methamphetamine lab they’d been watching for years. She helped get the bad guys busted because some guy came in buying what she thought was too much cold medicine. It’s an ingredient of meth, I guess.

Well, I’m glad they busted the bad guys. But…

The newscast kept bragging about how you’re not going to be able to get away with that sneaky little trick anymore, because local pharmacies now require you to have an ID to buy Sudafed.

What’s an ID doing for them? Preventing someone under 18 from buying Sudafed? Is that legal? Wouldn’t it be extremely simple to have someone 19 buy it?

Are they taking down my name and giving it to authorities? The authorities now have a list of everyone who buys Sudafed?

Can they do that? Are they doing that? Or is it just some mild form of intimidation to scare me out of the methamphetamine lab business? Gosh, they carded me. Better find Jesus & give this up.

2

As far as I know, they’re just getting your name so they can track how much you’re buying. If you go over a certain amount, it means you’re running a drug lab, I guess. Although personally, I’d just have a bunch of other people go buy the stuff for me. Or if I’m breaking the law with the drug production and all, I’d probably just be stealing the pills.

So I don’t really see how this helps, other than to put the public at ease: “See, it’s harder for drug dealers to make their drugs!”

3

Yeah, and that’s what they do. When I worked at a major retail store that has a pharmacy, occasionally the ones who were actually suspicious (young men buying ONLY the maximum allowed number of cold medicine packages) would come in groups and buy them at different registers.

The maximum had been 3 packages, and now was reduced to 2, which I thought was a little ridiculous - so sometimes when a customer had 3 or 4 and I didn’t think they were a meth runner I offered to ring them up for them in a seperate transaction. Then the day that group of young men came in all buying cold medicine, without even thinking about it I made the same offer (he was trying to buy 3, after they reduced it to 2). He just mumbled and looked guilty and then I realized it was likely he actually was running meth. (I just did the transaction for 2 ;))

4

In my state at least, there is a finite amount of pseudoephedrine that you can buy per adult person per unit of time, although when I ask what that amount or time is, they say it’s a secret. So far, I haven’t exceeded the allowable amount, so I guess I’m not running a meth lab.

[Falbo’s Tiny Town]Or it’s a verrry tiny one.[/Falbo]

5

None of those ploys (yours or theirs) would work in Wisconsin, as you have to show an ID which is recorded; you can’t buy the stuff at a regular register anyway (must be the pharmacy reg); and the minute you sign for it, your state-wide tally is updated so you can’t exceed the max by going to another store or clerk until the prescribed time has elapsed (days, I presume).

At least that’s what they tell me, and it certainly isn’t technologically difficult to do. But I haven’t tried to test the limits, as my “meth lab” is big enough for my own use. Sure is a stupid hassle, tho.

6

It may seem silly to you, but here in the Midwest (the meth capitol of the world) things were getting out of hand. Particularly since meth-makers tend to shoot back when the law comes to bust them, and meth labs themselves have an unfortunate tendency to explode when something goes wrong.

First someone would come in and buy 40 packages of Sudafed. Then the pharmacies voluntarily put a limit on how much you could buy.

Then they’d come in and steal this stuff. So the pharmacies put the stuff behind the counter.

Then they’d go to 30 or 40 pharmacies and buy the limit.

Then the state started requiring an ID. So they crossed the state line.

And that’s when the Feds got involved.

Yes and yes.

The directions on my perfectly legal to own box of generic pseudoephedrine says “Do not exceed 8 tablets in 24 hours.” If my cold hangs on for 10 days, that means I’ll take 80 tablets. I think if you keep your purchases down to 80 doses every 10 days, you’ll probably be okay.

7

The local CVS started requiring ID, recording your name and address and making you sign for Nyquil. Neither Publix, K-Mart or Wal-Mart require this.

Makes no sense to me.

8

It doesn’t just seem silly to me, it’s extremely annoying.

I used to take Coricidin D. I loved it, particularly this time of year. About five (?) years ago the FDA mandated that the formula be changed to get rid of one of the ingredients (PPA? or something like that). My response was to buy a pack of Coricidin D every time I went near a store until that happened and if anybody had been keeping track, well, I’d have gotten on one list or another I’m sure.

Okay. Well, eventually the formula changed, the Coricidin D was put in the pharmacy and you had to ask for it, and by then I had quite a stockpile. Ah, but it doesn’t last forever. So this year, in the midst of what’s turning out to be a particularly bad allergy year for me, I ran out.

In my attempts to replace it I have bought five or six other things, one by one. I am not taking the whole pack, obviously, since one dose proves to me that it doesn’t do what Coricidin D did and is therefore useless, more or less.

What Coricidin D did was just miraculous, but maybe only for me. I would take it at night, go to sleep, sleep well, and wake up clear, without fuzzy eyes, dripping nose, etc. The other stuff, yeah, it works, but it makes me either sleepy or, if not sleepy, makes my head feel empty and kind of echoey. My brother, who’s a pharmacist (and also has similar allergies) has commiserated with me. It is not only the m’f’in meth creators, though. Apparently one of the big reasons for taking the PPA (or whatever it was)out of these OTC drugs was that teenage girls were using them for some kind of weight control, and at least three of them OD’d. Stupid, heartless teenagers. What do they care if I sniffle and snort and my throat swells up? Damn little narcissists.

Anyway, if I were in Wisconsin I bet I’d have tripped something in the system in the last couple of weeks. I did, in fact, have to show my driver’s license for one of these drugs that didn’t work. Do you suppose I’d have had to return the ones that didn’t work in order to try the next thing? Or would they just search my house for the mythical meth lab? (And could I get them to dig up my back garden, somehow?)

9

And when something goes right. Or when the wind changes.

Who would have guessed that recreational chemistry could result in massive fires and explosions? Answer: anyone with two brain cells to rub together.

/sticks to DayQuil when he needs a decongestant

10

Oh sure. First, they came for the sniffling Sudafed users. You said nothing.

Then, they came for you DayQuil users, and there was no one to speak for you…

11

This conversation leads to a recycling of the verb “Smurfing”.

12

CVS in NW NJ does this. In Chester, NJ. A hotbed of $1M homes, soccer moms & Volvos. While I realize meth is a problem across the social stratus…come on.

VCNJ~

13

And somewhat ironically, you don’t need an ID to buy Maximum Strength Robotussin…yet.

14

Perhaps they’re (rightly) concerned that if they didn’t, the meth makers would find out and start buying their supplies there.

Yeah, but Robitussin bottles don’t explode and create a hazmat/fire combo, at least. However, in my area the stuff is kept behind the counter and those under age 18 can’t buy it, or anything else with dextromethorphan in it.

15

Biiiiiig meth problem in Oregon. Supposedly, according to Oregon MethWatch (an anti-drug site which includes an article entitled “High Housewives,” teehee),

Not that the CPS folks will remove kids if there’s meth in the home, they only remove kids if they’re being neglected or abused, so that stat is probably fairly disingenuous.
Anyway, the point is, they tried restricting the number of packages, and that didn’t work, so they moved it behind the pharmacy counter, and that didn’t work, so now as I understand it, I have to have a doctor’s order in order to get my over the counter cold medicines. They wussed out the Sudafed and the Nyquil, and substituted some other drug for the pseudofedrine so… you can still get Nyquil, but it’s not the useful Nyquil. Sigh.

16

We use a lot of Claritin-D in the house. My mother uses it regularly, as does my brother, and my father and I use it occasionally. However, they’ve now moved it behind the counter, and you’re only allowed to get one of them. Which, with four people using it, isn’t even a month’s supply! My mother is not happy about this- she keeps talking about how you would think that they’d let someone buy enough medicine for her and her kids. Plus, since it’s behind the counter, even if we go to multiple pharmacies, this often means a nice, long wait each time at the pharmacy line.

17

That’s the part I love. The Walgreens I go to has moved just about every decongestant behind the counter. Guess what. The lines are horrible. If I’m stopped up, drippy, sneeze and I have to crawl out of bed to go get cold medicine, I REALLY don’t want to wait in line. On top of that, you can’t even read the packaging before you buy, to see if it’s what you really want.

The first manufacturer that figures out what to add to their products, so it can’t be used to make meth, and doesn’t have to be stored behind the counter, is going to be freaking rich.

18

They have already figured that out. The problem is that pseudophedrine is really good at what it does. The other alternatives, not so much.

19

Maybe some stores are slower at implementing this policy. I had to show ID a few weeks ago when I bought Sudafed at Wal-Mart. It was a big deal since I wasn’t already in the system. The cashier at the pharmacy apologized to me several times (I felt bad for her – she probably took a lot of crap from customers). The time before that, however, I simply showed my license and got the medicine. The cashier didn’t record my information in any way that I saw.

My coworker was complaining last month that she was sick and couldn’t get real Sudafed without a big production. I told her it’s only a matter of time before we have Nyquil dealers on street corners. :wink:

20

I’ve heard Nyquil referred to as “Poor Man’s Creme De Menthe”. Kids are probably drinking it to get a buzz.