Report: Nevada looks to push PSE Rx legislation

LAS VEGAS — Nevada Sen. Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, is working with Carson City district attorney Neil Rombardo on introducing a bill to require a prescription for pseudoephedrine as a tool to cut down on illicit methamphetamine production, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Wednesday evening.

The intent of the bill is to thwart “smurfing,” the practice whereby individuals purchase PSE in excess of federally mandated sales limits by hopscotching across several pharmacies. Leslie and Rombardo pointed to a reduction in methamphetamine busts in Oregon and Mississippi, both states that require a prescription for PSE. "The proof is in the evidence, and I think the evidence is clear," Rombardo reported to the journal. Leslie and Rombardo currently are drumming up support for the bill, the journal reported.

Nevada is not one of the states that has signed on for the industry-funded National Precursor Log Exchange, a multistate electronic PSE sales blocking system that inhibits “smurfing” without impacting consumers looking for legitimate symptom relief for a cold or sinus infection.

Presently, Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, South Carolina and Washington have adopted NPLEx. NPLEx not only monitors all nonprescription PSE purchases in these states in real time, individually, it also tracks purchases among all participating states so that criminals attempting to manufacture methamphetamine can’t just go across a border to skirt the system.