Sudafed, Meth precursors and the Combat Methamphetamine Epidimic Act of 2005.
It’s allergy season here in Atlanta. I ran into Eckerd’s the other day to get some Claritin-D. I wanted to by enough to last me for the whole month. I was denied by the clerk. I was told that it was illegal to buy anything containing pseudoephedrine in those quantities. Under the impression that I knew a thing or two about the law, I inquired and was pointed to the Combat Meth Act of 2005, which was part of the Patriot Act.
I was trying to purchase 30 tablets, each containing 240 milligrams of pseudoephedrine. That is 7.2 grams. The new law limits such purchases to 3.6 grams in any one day and 9 grams in any 30 day period. To enforce this, a log book is kept behind the counter and you have to show identification and sign the log book with your identifying information. Additionally, if you are ordering online and by the mail, you can only purchase 7.5 grams in a 30 day period. It is a Federal crime to put false information in the log book too! What happens with the log books you ask? The can be used by the Attorney General, State and local law enforcement agencies.
I can’t wait for one of my clients to come in after a police raid executing a search warrant. This is bound to happen. Family of five. Mom, Dad and 3 kids. All have allergies. Their need could be as much as 30 to 35 grams in a month. Mom and Dad both go to drug store to buy it in two separate transactions. Not having enough for the family, they go by another drug store and do the same thing. Two weeks later, the undercovers show up with a warrant based on information retrieved from the log books. They tear up the house searching for a meth lab and find nothing but a family of runny noses (or more likely they find some other form of contraband). Neighbors look on, wondering what the family is up to.
By the way, none of this applies if you have a prescription. But if you are buying “over the counter” or “behind the counter” now, this is what you are dealing with.
The National Association of Chain Drug Stores had this to say about the act.
As you might imagine, privacy groups, like the Medical Privacy Coalition, are up in arms.
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September 22nd, 2006 at 9:14 pm
I am absolutely incensed that I cannot buy Claritin-D at Walgreen’s without turning over my Georgia driver’s license to some clerk so that they can input all of its info. into an electronic database. I’m sure that the war on drugs will be much more successful now that these morons in these pharmacies have all of our personal information.
I work for a company which is involved trying to combat ID theft…I wonder what kinds of problems we are setting ourselves up for if we let retailers combine all of this data into one file. What are we turning into… an Orwellian police state?