Report: Union, Mo., passes new PSE legislation

NEW YORK There is a big danger here, and it’s a danger that has less to do with the neighborhood meth addict in search of pseudoephedrine, and more to do with appropriate access to medicines and who gets to be the gatekeeper to that access. Because not only will a prescription-only PSE restrict consumer access to a legitimate nonprescription cough-cold ingredient, but if successfully mandated by the local government, it also has the potential to limit legitimate access to just about any cost-saving OTC medicine and for just about any reason.

And that’s because you’ve just usurped the ability to switch or reverse-switch a drug from the scientists employed by the Food and Drug Administration, scientists who vet each decision through clinical trials, and placed that ability into the hands of a local politician, who’s sole clinical experience with any given drug may be that he used it one afternoon because he felt under the weather. Or that his niece experienced an adverse event from overdosing on an OTC cough-cold medicine that she shouldn’t have had access to in the first place.

There are some areas that are appropriately left to local municipalities to govern. This isn’t one of those areas, especially since the industry has offered to supplement the cost of a measure that would both cut down on the use of store-bought PSE in the manufacture of meth while at the same time maintaining access of the decongestant to legitimate users.