Washington, D.C. - The Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) today applauded West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s introduction of common sense legislation to the fight against methamphetamine production and abuse.

The governor’s legislation (Senate Bill 437) implements real-time, stop-sale technology to block the illegal sale of over-the-counter cold and allergy medicines containing pseudoephedrine (PSE) while protecting access to safe and effective cold and allergy medicines like Advil Cold & Sinus, Claritin D, Mucinex D, and Sudafed for law-abiding citizens.  Each year, over 18 million American families rely on these FDA-approved medicines to treat common cold and seasonal allergy symptoms.

By ZACK HAROLD 

DAILY MAIL STAFF 

If some state lawmakers have their way, buying a package of Sudafed for a stuffy nose could soon be a lot more difficult.

But according to some local doctors, pseudoephedrine might not be the best choice for what ails you, anyway.

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin last week proposed a new, real-time tracking system for pseudoephedrine- based medications. The drugs are used in clandestine labs to make methamphetamine. The tracking system would, in theory, allow law enforcement to pinpoint meth makers by identifying those who buy large amounts of cold medicine.

Surely scripts are not the only way to fight meth labs

A S I sat across the long table from state Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, at a meeting with the Daily Mail editorial board on Monday, one question kept rolling in my mind. Why is the answer always a new law?

Foster, Delegate Don Purdue, D-Wayne, and others were pitching a bill to the editorial board. Foster, a surgeon now working as an administrator, has considered meth labs and decided the only way to reduce their number is to make West Virginians get a doctor’s prescription to buy cold medications like Sudafed that contain pseudoephedrine.

Electronic tracking of purchases targets criminals, not cold sufferers

WEST Virginia has a meth lab problem. People home-brew methamphetamine using toxic substances that can lead to chemical contamination, fires and explosions.

Rival plans are now before legislators to prevent drug abusers from buying cold remedies that contain pseudoephedrine to make methamphetamine.

One strategy would require cold sufferers to get prescriptions for over-the-counter cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine. The other plan would stop only suspicious purchasers.