Pharma, Policy

‘Stop Meth’ bill brings pseudoephedrine electronic tracking to N.C. pharmacies

Retail pharmacies are becoming the new front line in North Carolina’s war against methamphetamine. Pharmacists […]

Retail pharmacies are becoming the new front line in North Carolina’s war against methamphetamine.

Pharmacists would need to check a national database of pseudoephedrine product purchases before cold and allergy sufferers can buy the products under a bill now awaiting Gov. Bev Perdue’s signature. Lawmakers ratified the bill on Thursday. The proposed electronic tracking system is an effort to curb pseudoephedrine’s availability to those who make the active ingredient in many cold pills into the illegal drug methamphetamine.

North Carolina law already restricts sales of products containing pseudoephedrine. Such products can only be sold behind a pharmacy counter and are limited to no more than two packages at one time and no more than three packages within 30 days. Purchasers must also show a photo ID and sign a log.

Methamphetamine cooks make the drug from stacks of blister packs purchased legally by buyers who go from one pharmacy to another. With the electronic tracking system, called the National Precursor Log Exchange or NPLEx, retailers will know whether a buyer has reached the limit of pseudoephedrine purchases. If that’s the case, the retailer can stop the sale. Attorney General Roy Cooper’s office said that more than a dozen states, including South Carolina, Florida and West Virginia, participate in NPLEx.

“Stopping illegal purchases of the key meth ingredient will make it harder for criminals to brew the drug,” Cooper said in a prepared statement. “Law enforcement will be able to use the tracking system to find meth makers and shut down their dangerous labs.”

Some states have considered stricter laws, including the return of these over-the-counter remedies to prescription status. Drug companies have argued against such measures by claiming they make it harder for consumers to purchase their medicine. The Consumer Healthcare Products Association, a group that represents makers of OTC medicines, has supported electronic tracking and argued that it does not restrict legitimate purchases of pseudoephedrine products.

If signed into law, North Carolina’s participation in NPLEx would start on Jan. 1, 2012.

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