Several cold medications solely
containing pseudoephedrine, a key meth ingredient, are no longer being sold at
Rite Aid stores in West Virginia
The company has pulled those
medicines, but is continuing to sell medications which contain
pseudephedrine in combination with other ingredients.
“There’s no way that you could argue with
them making that move,” said Delegate Don Perdue (D-Wayne, 19).
“(But) I would be much more
impressed if it was a positive move they were making in every state
of the nation and that’s not what they’re doing. They’re responding to a
situation in West Virginia
At the State House in recent years,
he has lead unsuccessful attempts to require prescriptions for medications
containing pseudoephedrine and promised he will again introduce legislation to
make the change when the 2014 Legislative Session begins in January.
Perdue said meth making
creates a number of dangers in West
Virginia
“We’re not talking about stopping,
necessarily, people from using meth. What we’re talking about is
production in these labs which are highly toxic and, if you can do that, then
isn’t that a public health issue? Public health, in the normal vein of
thought, trumps almost every other kind of argument ,” said Perdue.
According to NPLEx, the electronic
tracking system for pseudoephedrine sales, Rite Aid is among the top sellers of
medicines containing pseudoephedrine in West
Virginia Kanawha County
There are more than 100 total Rite
Aid stores in West Virginia
Back in August, officials with
Fruth Pharmacy, a regional pharmacy chain, announced plans to replace Sudafed
with Nexafed, a medication that works like Sudafed, but is
tamper-resistant so pseudoephedrine cannot be extracted from it to make
meth.
