Pseudoephedrine and Pharmacists

statehouse picEphedrine, pseudoephedrine and meth received a lot of discussion during session, especially when House Speaker Brian Bosma (R-Indianapolis) came out in November and said that something needed to be done about the state’s meth problem. The Chamber supported HB 1157/SB 161, which included putting individuals with drug-related felonies on the National Precursor Log Exchange (NPLEx) and thus would trigger a stop-sale alert; both bills passed. The Chamber has historically been opposed to making ephedrine products prescription only because of the inconvenience to consumers that need these products and the impacts on businesses that supply them; HB 1390 in its original form would have done that.

During the last week of session, the Chamber provided a written letter to the General Assembly on the conference committee report for SB 80 that was voted on in the House. The letter stated that the conference committee language prohibited consumers from
accessing multi-ingredient, time-released allergy products, such as Claritan-D, Allegra-D, Zyrtec-D and Mucinex-D – the most effective products for consumers suffering from allergies. The multi-use products are less likely to be used in meth than the single-ingredient products referenced in the conference committee report. The letter also suggested how to fix the problem.

Representative Ben Smaltz (R-Auburn) was the House sponsor and although he did not make the changes necessary to fix the conference committee report of SB 80, he did agree that the House-passed third reading version of SB 80 should be concurred upon in the Senate.That essentially amounted to the same thing as the fix and addressed the concerns the Chamber had.

The Indiana Chamber joined CVS, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, the Indiana Pharmacists Alliance, the Indiana Retail Council, Bayer and Johnson & Johnson in penning a letter to encourage the Senate to concur on the House-passed version of SB 80 because it allowed legitimate cold and allergy sufferers the medicine they need while dramatically reducing sales of pseudephedrine to meth cooks and those they hire to purchase the drugs. Senate Bill 80 allows individuals who have a relationship with a pharmacist to purchase ephedrine and pseudoephedrine products.

It also allows the pharmacist to sell lesser amounts of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine products if there is no relationship. The House version was what ultimately became law.