LAT: Remixed cold meds pack less punch: Eliminate meth ingredients

[DeepModem Mom]

Remixed cold meds pack less punch
Some drug companies eliminate ingredients that are used to make methamphetamines.
By Daniel Costello, Times Staff Writer


Consumers could face a challenge this coming cold and flu season as restrictions aimed at curbing methamphetamine abuse make it more difficult to stock up on popular over-the-counter remedies.

But even as Congress considers legislation that would require prescriptions for some cold medications, and California already limits the purchase of such items, drug makers are scurrying to get reformulated remedies onto pharmacy and store shelves.

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FOR THE RECORD:
Cold drugs —An article on cold medications in Monday's Health section said Congress is considering legislation that would require prescriptions for some cold medications. Although Oregon will soon require a prescription for drugs containing the decongestant pseudoephedrine, Congress is not considering such legislation. It is, however, considering a proposal that would require retailers to put such drugs behind the counter.

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The newer cold medications — expected to hit the market this fall — are slightly less effective than most products now available. Over time, however, the new products could replace many of the medications consumers have used for decades because their ingredients can't easily be used to make methamphetamines.

One product, Sudafed PE, is already available, and as many as half a dozen other reformulated medications are expected soon. They will not contain pseudoephedrine, a popular decongestant that has been used in many cold and allergy medications such as NyQuil, Tylenol Flu and Claritin-D. Pseudoephedrine is a key ingredient in producing methamphetamines when it's boiled and mixed with household ingredients....


http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-cold15aug15,0,4656555.story?coll=la-home-health

[Ian David]

1. Stupid rednecks and their methlabs. n/t

[FlaGranny]

2. Idiots that want to get high

on MY cold medications!! They will make colds more miserable for all of us. My cold remedies - the only things that really, really work to relieve congestion - a 12-hour nasal spray, NyQuil Night at bedtime, and NyQuil Day in the morning, plus some ibuprofen thrown in for aches and pains. I haven't had a cold in 4 years or so, so I guess I'm due.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. I don't know if my family can survive colds without NyQuil Night...

although I suspect it's the alcohol content that gives us the good night's sleep!

[wli]

4. cold remedies: another casualty of the "war on drugs"

This is a total crock.

[LostinVA]

5. This stuff doesn't work for me only pseudoephedrine does

And I know I am not alone.

[katty]

8. You're not alone-only the pseudoephedrine works

my seasonal allergies have been raging for the last 5 years-and I don't do dairy and have used many homeopathic remedies, nothing seems to calm them down when seasons change or the pollution is heavy.

[gratefull4u]

6. This will be hard on many innocent people.

2 pseudoephedrine + 2 aspirin is the only thing that helps when I get a severe sinus headache. I only get them every few months but I would like to keep the right to buy what I need to feel better. I went to get some the other day and there was a card where the pills should be. Following the directions on the card I took it to the pharmacy, the pharmacy was closed for the night. I don't mind this approach, but wish I would have known. I guess when they become prescription only everywhere, the drug companies will benefit.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. Get with the program

Punishing a million innocent people is better than letting even one criminal get away with it. If you're not with us you're against us. Why do you coddle criminals?

:sarcasm:

[Trillo]

9. Prices for health care continuing to rise.

Excuse this time? Drug War.

It's curious that "drug war" seems to have a "dual meaning."

When are our leaders going to start taking legislative actions that reduce health care costs for consumers, instead of raising them?

Rev. January 2005
ALLEGRA-D® 24 HOUR
(fexofenadine HCl 180 mg and
pseudoephedrine HCl 240 mg)
Extended-Release Tablets
http://www.aventis-us.com/PIs/allegrad24.pdf

According to drugstore.com, with sufficient money paid to a doctor for an office visit and the proper script in hand:
90 tablets $247.97 - save 17% ($51.06)

At another online pharmacy, OTC pseudoephedrine, 100 60 mg tablets for $17.00

Comparing prices per mg of fexofenadine+pseudoephedrine and not including any doctor's charge:

$ 0.00656 per milligram

psudoephedrine only, no doctors charge required:

$ 0.002833 per milligram

Looks to me like there's a bit of a corporate monetary incentive to convince authoritarian controllers that pseudoephedrine should be difficult for the public to buy or find.

[Robb]

10. I said this before: too f-ing bad.

In fact I said exactly this before:

This is NOT a casual drug problem that can be compared to other drugs.

I'm an EMS worker. Aside from the horrible effects of meth use, which you can read about anywhere, let me tell you what we come across that NOBODY came across before with other drugs:

Meth labs produce waste byproducts that meth cookers (because they are also addicts) don't dispose of properly. About every month one of the poor SOB's picking up trash along the side of the highway (usually volunteers, often elderly) grabs a poorly closed plastic trash sack and gets an exposure that puts them in the hospital for three days.

The chemicals involved cannot be metabolized by the body. So the body excretes them, typically through the skin causing horrible, terrifying sores.

Ambulance drivers and EMTs I work with tell stories about responding to fires in the past two years in rural communities, double-wides on 35 acres in the sticks. Kids so exposed they're going to be in the health care system forever.

A good friend in law enforcement showed up on a call when the mom called the ambulance because her 3 year-old daughter wasn't breathing ... cop buddy stepped on nails from a buried plank. EMT rolled through similar with the stretcher. Sheriff's office later described the WHOLE LOT booby-trapped, broken glass, needles, even a bomb. To say nothing of the chemicals that took a week to clean up with everyone dressed up like Teletubbies from Mars.

All this for a product where you spend $200 on ingredients to earn $800 IF you sell the whole batch, which you usually don't.

This is a drug for the poor, the desperate, and ultimately the paranoid. Most stores in Colorado restrict the number of ingredients you can purchase at once. Smaller producers are being driven out of business because they can't afford to hire the 11 year-old "runners" to head out to different stores all over town. It kills off the little meth labs, which are the ones who have no FUCKING IDEA what they're doing.

So production moves off-shore? Pardon my insensitivity, but great. It means two things: the cost of the drug will increase, which means fewer poor people will be able to afford it, and maybe the problem will move into the class of people who may actually take some action about it; and secondly, I won't have to carry the goddamn biohazard crap every time I head out on a call.

Passing the problem on? Better believe it. :grr: