In a move destined infuriate cold and allergy sufferers and enrich doctors and pharmacists, residents of Oregon will now be required to get a prescription for certain everyday cold and allergy medications. The justification for this insanity, of course, is the War on Drugs:
Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed legislation Tuesday that will make Oregon the first state to require prescriptions for everyday cold and allergy medications that can be converted into methamphetamine.
The requirement applies to any medication containing pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient in making meth.
So, once again, the War on Drugs is used as justification for restrictions on personal freedom and autonomy.
“This is a tremendous start but we must recognize that it is just that, a start,” the governor said. “We have a long way to go.”
What’s next Governor ? Outlawing Sudafed entirely ? Random strip searches of anyone with the sniffles ?
Oregon isn’t the only state where this is happening, practically every state in the country now requires Sudafed and similar cold and allergy remedies to be sold only from behind the pharamacy counter, mandates record keeping for every purchase of these medications, and restricts the amount of cold medication a person can purchase (God help you if you’ve got a really bad cold I guess).
In reality, its doubtful that most of the methamphetamine out there comes from people who bought large quantities of Sudafed at CVS. As Jacob Sullum pointed out in Reason earlier this year:
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, some 80 percent of illicit meth comes from large-scale Mexican traffickers, who tend to buy pseudoephedrine in bulk rather than a few packs at a time in pharmacies and grocery stores.
In other words, all these restrictions will do nothing to get meth off the streets and will serve only to inconvenience millions of people who just want to stop sneezing.
Hat Tip: Hit & Run
