Four months after Fruth Pharmacy
switched to a tamper-resistant pseudoephedrine product, they’re seeing positive
results.
The company stopped selling Sudafed
and replaced it with Nexafed back in September. Nexafed has the same ingredients.
The only difference is the makers, of Nexafed, have created a pill that
disrupts the extraction and conversion, of Sudafed, into methamphetamines.
Lynn Fruth, the CEO and president
of the Fruth Pharmacy chain, said looking at their books, Nexafed has been a
popular replacement for law abiding citizens.
“We feel pretty good about the fact
that we’ve sold nearly a thousand boxes of [Nexafed] since we’ve really
promoted it!”
Another change Fruth has made is
the sale of products like Allegra and Claritin that contain smaller amounts of
pseudoephedrine.
“We have moved all of those
products behind the pharmacy counter and the view, of the customer,” explained
Fruth.
In order to buy those meds, at
Fruth, you must have a consultation with a pharmacist who said they usually can
tell who is buying the product for legitimate reasons and who wants to use it
for criminal purposes. Fruth pharmacists can decline to sell the drug to a
customer, if they feel it’s going to be used improperly.
Fruth said they decided to take a
hard stand but she still believes it was the right thing to do.
“Legitimate customers should be
willing to try some of these tamper-resistant products. We’ve actually had a
lot of customer requests,” according to Fruth. “We’ve have had a lot of
feedback from customers saying they appreciate being able to purchase something
that works and yet doesn’t create any risks.”
In fact, Fruth said she’s been
moved by the many parents and grandparents, of meth addicts, who stop and thank
her for the company’s tough stance.
Since Fruth made the change, other
companies have followed.
“I think we’re starting to get some
traction, in terms of other drug stores and retailers saying, ‘We want to come
along side and do the right thing as well’ and really trying to limit these
products getting out there,” according to Fruth.
Currently, state law requires all
products with pseudoephedrine be kept behind the pharmacy counter. As the state
Legislature heads into session next week, one bill expected to land on the
agenda calls for medications, with pseudoephedrine, to become prescription-only
to keep better track of who’s buying it.
Fruth said she has no problem with
that change in the law.
“But I really would like for the
Legislature to consider allowing the tamper-resistant products to still be sold
and tracked [without a prescription] so that legitimate patients can still
access those without the expense of going to a physician and having a higher
cost for the medication.”
Fruth said the company may lose money in the long run because of
their beliefs but it’s worth it to stop the production of a deadly, illegal
drug.
