Let's Talk about an Abused Drug

Let’s Talk about an Abused Drug

            Pseudoephedrine is a pill commonly used for allergies, nasal decongestion, or head colds, but can also be used to make meth.  I used to work in a Wal-Mart pharmacy where I would have to turn down users who needed their pseudoephedrine several times a day. Not to be judgmental but, I could always tell by the people who were standing in line, which ones were there to pick up a prescription and which ones were there for Pseudoephedrine. They would wait in the line and walk up to the pharmacy, sometimes having scabs on their bodies, smelling of ammonia, or already holding their driver’s license in their yellow stained, dry, and sometimes burned hands. I believe Joplin City Council has done a great thing by recently moved that we should take control over Pseudoephedrine by making the drug prescription only.

            Since 2001 Missouri has ranked number one in methamphetamine incidents, according to Debby Woodin’s article in the Joplin Globe. I know that in Missouri it is only legal to purchase 9 grams of Pseudoephedrine each month. I also know that there are 21 tablets in each box. Now why on earth would someone need 3 boxes of Pseudoephedrine for themselves? I would usually have regulars in the pharmacy that would come and buy and every time they came in they had a different sickness. Sometimes they would go on and on about allergies and sometimes they would pretend to have a cold, or claim that their grandma had a cold. Just because you can pretend that you are sick doesn’t mean that people do not notice you are a liar. We did have the power to turn them down if we wanted to, but the law states that they can have 9 grams each month so there would be a possibility that they could sue you for judging them. “A total of 102 labs were seized last year in the county, with 46 of those in Joplin.” That is a lot of meth labs! It’s scary to think that we have so many meth labs so close to home! It makes you feel unsafe.

                Some people are saying that it is just another way to legalize meth, but it’s not. In my opinion this will work a lot better because a doctor can tell whether or not someone needs medication such as Pseudoephedrine. If less people can get a hold of things that contain Pseudoephedrine, then less people can make meth, making our town a safer place for our children to grow up. However, a bad thing about making the medication prescription only is the fact that doctors’ offices and urgent cares, and other places are going to be crawling with new patients for a long time trying to get their Pseudoephedrine prescriptions, making it harder to pay visits to your doctor for real illnesses. I think after a while though that the problem will fade because less people may try to get Pseudoephedrine because they know that the doctor will never believe that they are sick. Missouri may be number one in methamphetamine related incidents now, but I believe that in the future it will be less of a problem because they changed it to prescription only.