New Law to Combat Meth Won’t Take Effect Until July

By BRAD CAIN, Associated Press writer

SALEM, Ore. A new state law requiring a doctor’s prescription for cold and allergy medicines containing the key ingredient used to make methamphetamine won’t take effect this winter as planned.

The state Board of Pharmacy had hoped to put the new requirement into effect by the end of the year, but the board’s director said Wednesday that a further review of the new law showed that lawmakers intended for the prescription requirements to take effect in July.

Gary Schnabel made the comment as he gave an interim legislative panel an update on the law passed by the 2005 Legislature to make Oregon the first state to require a doctor’s prescription for cold and allergy medicines that contain pseudoephedrine.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski and other backers have called the new law a major step in the fight against the methamphetamine epidemic because it will make it tougher for local meth cooks to obtain pseudoephedrine.

The bill won overwhelming approval in the Legislature despite complaints from a few lawmakers who said some of their constituents will be angry when they have to obtain prescriptions for such common drugs as Sudafed and Claritin D.

Schnabel said Wednesday that more cold and allergy medicines are becoming available to consumers in versions that contain phenylephrine, an alternative to pseudoephedrine which works just as well for most consumers and can’t be converted into highly addictive methamphetamine.

While saying he doesn’t have a complete list of those drugs, Schnabel said it appears that about 40 percent of the cold medicines that used to contain pseudoephedrine have been reformulated by drug companies to remove that ingredient in favor of phenylephrine.

Schnabel said he thinks a lot of Oregonians will decide not to seek a doctor’s prescription and will choose cold and allergy medicines that don’t contain pseudoephedrine.