I have discovered that it might be a good idea to add some over the counter cold medications to your first aid kit because they can be hard to come by, especially here in Ohio. It is a problem now because people are buying over the counter meds to make illegal drugs in meth labs so you can't buy a lot of cold medications unless the pharmacy happens to be open. If you need them after hours, you are just plain out of luck. I found this out when I needed some last week and it was late at night and the pharmacy at wally world was closed. Only thing on the shelf was those neat plastic cards to redeem at the pharmacy for cold medication. Once again, the bad guys are making it hard for the law-abiding.

Yeah, it's frustrating. Not long ago I tried to buy some cold medicine that contained pseudoephedrine. I took several of the cards up to the pharmacy desk. They told me I could only have two at a time. I said, "OK. I'll take two, go for a stroll around the store and come back for two more." They apologized and said I'd have to go to another store if I wanted to buy more than two in a day. So I decided I'd just take the two. As they were ringing everything up, they asked for my ID. What?! Yep, they had to log my purchase. "Well, as long as I've got my ID out, I'll take some ammo and a pack of cigarettes, too!" (I don't smoke; just being ornery.) Got a chuckle and an apology. Costco's a good place to buy OTC meds. You'll still have to jump through a hoop or two, but you can get a whole lot more for your trouble.

They've been doing that since spring. Most pharmacies have something like that now, either by choice or by law. For the chains, it makes sense to have a policy that is company wide, it's just a CYA issue if there are enough states that have similiar laws. For the locals, I think it's them trying to be proactive to head of a proibition. I think some states were looking at banning the sale of psuedoephidrine as an OTC, or at least they were a few months ago.

And without it, I'd just hibernate through pollen season. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

I don't know about other states, but in OR and WA they are tracking the purchases in a central computer system.

Sue

the worst part of it is, that psuedoephidrine is the only thing that really helps with a head cold. the new forumulations that you can buy over the counter don't do anything for a cold but remove money from your wallet

Too many entries in the database may make us permanently stuffed up people look like criminals.

Yes, I believe it all started in California.. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> I feel almost apologetic for the "wacky" laws this state puts out..

I believe that having some OTC cold meds in the home FAK is a good idea. Mostly because when the cold hits, I usually don't what to have to go out, I want to stay home and be sick.

My local Rite-Aid in California now swipes the mag stripe on my driver's license. I asked why, and was told that it limits my purchase to one per day chain-wide. I don't know for sure, but I have to believe that information is available to the DEA, if they wanted to see it.

So, it seems that we have prescription drugs, true OTC unregulated-to-purchase drugs, and something in-between.

I was discussing this with one of our drug task force guys. He told me that meth is still at the same street price, so this "proceedure" is probably not working to limit meth production.

The perception that we are doing something about the drug problem is the important thing. Whether or not it actually works is irrelevant.

We in the UK have that problem with asprin and related products. With these it is supposed to discourage suicide attempts.