I have heard in Great Britain you can buy products with codeine over the counter.

The nanny state doesnt even seem to have any internal consistency in their bad drug lists. It is all pretty much about control, and political whim.

Be glad you're not in Oregon. They had the brilliant idea to require a prescription for pseudoephedrine plus the Fed law requirements. It is cheaper for me to drive to Washington state to buy it from behind the counter and thats 70 miles one way. I figure the first doc visit if not a clinic is $100+ just for cold meds.

But hey, the children are protected. Fewer meth labs or something.

Yep few meth labs, so now meth is cheaper as suoper labs in mexico pump out the stuff hundereds of times faster.

By closing down local meth labs they made the meth problem worse. Used to be tweekers would usually kill themselves while making their own meth.

Now they can buy it cheaper, and dont have to put their lives in danger

Heh, when I saw the headline I thought "Ooo, where is she going?" I thought you were flying!

Silly terrorists! They want to kill us, but could do so much worse if they became congressmen.

And voter ID requirements are troublesome for some? Guess they don't buy meds.

My doctor prescribed a Z-pack for me when I had a horrible sinus infection, and also recommended I continue to take Clariton daily as I already do and get some Advil cold and sinus to alleviate the symptoms until my antiobiotics kicked in. He wrote this all down on the prescription pad. The pharmacist told me that I could only havethe Z-pack and ONE of the the OTC drugs, not both. I repeat: I HAD A NOTE FROM MY DOCTOR AND MY PRESCRIBED TREATMENT WAS REFUSED. I also had to provide my ID as well, even though I wasn't using my insurance and was paying cash. You better believe I had a fucking coniption fit. But, because I was feeling so miserable, I chose the Advil and then tried to go to the CVS up the street to get the Clariton. Don't you know, I'm in the system now and they refused to sell it to me because I might make meth. That's right. That ONE pill pack of Advil and Clariton might be used to make meth, so I, even with a doctors note, cannot get them.

I'm so glad the government is protecting us wee people from ourselves. I'd much rather suffer with the symptoms then worry about being so tempted. Thank you, government, for making sure that I, an Adult American citizen, understands that I can't be trusted to make the right decision by myself and making it for me.

I know they want to "protect" us from misuse but they take it way overboard and end up infringing on our rights as a citizen,I have had alot of incidences where they would not give me the whole prescription simply because there could be a chance to misuse it but I think they try to control it so much and to be honest if someone wants to make meth etc they are going to find some way around the laws to do that and so the only ones that really are affected with these guidelines are us everyday people that need some meds to feel better.

Can you say "government overreach"?? C'mon say it with me. I know you can.

It disgusts me, what the average American citizen has been reduced to.

I also recently had a problem with getting my new birth control too, Amy. It took WEEKS to get it cleared up.

My plan, apparently, will not cover more than 30 days at a time if it's being filled at a pharmacy. This was news to me. I was not on the pill for two years prior to this as we were trying to concieve and after two very painful misscarriages and some financial strain, we decided to wait another year before trying again. So, I went back on the pill. I'd never had a problem with my insurance before that so I was shocked at how complicated it became. (And yes, all of this hassled was all specifically due to ObamaCare). The pack I was prescribed comes as a 91 pill pack. It cannot be broken up. The pharmacist in this case was actually on the phone with my insurance, arguing with them on my behalf. The only option for me to get this particular brand (I cannot take the generic; I know it's supossed to be the same but it made me sick as a dog) was to do mail order and in that case, I wasn't able to use my savings card for the discounted rate. They wanted $300 out of pocket, even though I've already met my deductable for the year. I was fucking livid.

In the end, it was actually CHEAPER for me to NOT to use my insurance, the prescription insurance that I PAY for for PRESECRIPTION coverage. And, all of this is for PREVENTATIVE care. I did the math on what it would have cost me if I'd gotten knocked up... It would cost me nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

Seems sorta counterproductive, dontcha think? I mean, how can one abuse Birth Control, anyway?!

I've given up on ever getting pseudoephedrine again. It's not so much the DEA questionnaire and immediate suspicion that I'm a meth producer that gets to me - although they are pretty infuriating. It's the long wait to get the pharmacist (because the clerk can't be trusted dispense such a dangerous substance), fill out the questionnaire, get the pharmacist again, have the pharmacist do the computer check and the consult. I'm over my cold by the time I get the cold medicine.

Of course, the active ingredient in it, dextromethorphan, in research, was shown to be WORSE than a placebo.

Isn't dextrmethorphan the active ingredient in cough syrup - the same cough syrup that Trayvon Martin and his friends liked to mix with Arizona Iced Tea Fruit Punch and Skittles to make "Purple Drank?"

Better stockpile it while you can - it'll be illegal soon, too.

To clarify:

Musinex is guaifenesin. (Which mobilizes mucus, among other things).

Now, they sell others - including the cough suppressant ones with dextromethorphan - but that's not the active ingredient in Musinex.

(But it is what you need for "Lean", apparently - and is abused, apparently, quite frequently.)

In other news, apparently there's a lot of lobbying for these restrictions on PSE by the makers of PE.

http://news.ufl.edu/2006/07/19/decongensant/

Last time I tried to buy it at Walgreens, I was told they'd only sell if if you had an "Active" prescription there, that CVS had just gotten nailed for selling "too much" PSE.

But, we should give the government credit.

Before the Combat Meth Act, 85% of all the meth in the country was made in Mexico.

Now, 91% is.

SUCCESS! See, and you guys are so snarky, here we can point to MEASURABLE SUCCESS IN A GOVERNMENT PROGRAM. I bet you don't think it was worth that $10 Billion.

Since the idea of guaifenisin (Mucinex) is to move the mucus out of you, why would anyone want to pair it with a cough suppressant? How would you move the mucus out, other than coughing?

Same here, April, on them not wanting to give me my whole prescription. I used people's laziness and fear of authority (in most cases) against the clerk, saying, "Well, I really respect Dr. X's wisdom and knowledge and if you want to question his prescription, you call him and do that."

I got my prescription.

Posted by: Amy Alkon at August 29, 2013 7:32 AM

Part of this is profit manipulation by the pharmacies, the doctors and the insurance companies. They want to fill the lowest possible number, as there is a set fee they charge to fill the prescription, and they would prefer to collect that set fee three times rather than once. , So a prescription for 90 pills, a three month supply, yields a ten dollar fee if you fill it for three months, and a thirty dollar fee if you fill it three times for thirty pills each time.

SUCCESS! See, and you guys are so snarky, here we can point to MEASURABLE SUCCESS IN A GOVERNMENT PROGRAM. I bet you don't think it was worth that $10 Billion. -- Unix-Jedi at August 29, 2013 8:55 AM

See the government is driving jobs out of the U.S. and crushing the entrepreneurial spirit that makes this country great.

alittlesense:

It's cough suppressant, not cough disablement.

You'll still cough, but hopefully not so much that you're worn out/not able to rest.

Now, they sell others - including the cough suppressant ones with dextromethorphan - but that's not the active ingredient in Musinex.

(But it is what you need for "Lean", apparently - and is abused, apparently, quite frequently.)

So that's why Hubby got asked for ID when he bought the mucinex with dextromethorphan at Target. The last time this topic came up, someone complained about Target asking for ID for things that shouldn't need ID. Perhaps a different state requires ID for it, and Target just implemented it in all of their stores. I was with, he had a cold, and picked up the box and went to ring it up with a few other items. The clerk asked for his driver's license, and I almost had a fit when he just handed it over.

Hubby said he thought he had to (and then made fun of me for the fit). I looked up state law (MN) and found out, nope, you only need ID when you purchase meth precursor drugs, and those have to be kept behind the counter in the first place.
Too late for that particular trip, but good to know for when my family gets sick again. (We have two small children, it's going to happen.)

In Roe v Wade the court said you have a right to privacy with your physician. I guess that right to privacy doesn't extend to your pharmacist.

Amy, I love that,how you turned that around and got your prescription I'm going to do that and see what happens :-) Isab right!

Amy, I love that,how you turned that around and got your prescription I'm going to do that and see what happens :-) Isab right!

Oh, fyi but the DEA is now testing a pilot program with Walgreens. They are requiring you to submit your ID to pickup a prescription for the real "naughty" restricted stuff like oxycontin etc.. I had to cough mine up along with the hand written prescription from my surgeon for just a few days worth of pain meds.

Oh, fyi but the DEA is now testing a pilot program with Walgreens. They are requiring you to submit your ID to pickup a prescription for the real "naughty" restricted stuff like oxycontin etc.. I had to cough mine up along with the hand written prescription from my surgeon for just a few days worth of pain meds.

Posted by: Sio at August 29, 2013 4:59 PM

We could only hope that this is the kiss of death for Walgreens. I have had to get a prescription there once when I was out of town. It was a total hassle, and most of their sundries are at least fifty percent more than at Walmart, sometimes double.

Walgreens is the Hobby Lobby of drugstores, meaning that their sales model is to double the list price of everything, so they can then put it on sale for only slightly more than you would pay at any other store.

The only way it would be worth getting my prescriptions at Walgreens is if it was next to my house. It isnt, and so I never go in there.

And all because some miserable bastards want to become giant losers strung out on meth. I say, legalize meth, have it manufactured safely -- rather than in a manner which will take out a neighborhood -- and let them buy it at a store, so the rest of us can buy our cold meds in peace.

BTW, Lowe's will ask for ID if you buy wood pellets (compressed sawdust) at their stores. Apparently the preservative on 40 pounds of sawdust can be used to make drugs.