Louisville Courier Journal - Kentucky Bill to Require Prescription for Pseudoephedrine Heads to Full Senate

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The full Senate should vote next week on Senate Bill 45, which would make pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in many over-the-counter cold and allergy medications, a scheduled drug. Only two other states, Oregon and Mississippi, have done so.

The Senate Judiciary Committee vote came after U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-5th, traveled to Frankfort to support the bill.

"Our future is gravely at stake here," Rogers said. "We can't afford to let this bill die. Please stand with the innocent children in the homes of meth makers. Let the meth makers know they are out of business."

Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, and Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, also testified in support of the measure, along with several members of law enforcement.

After the formal presentations, several others spoke before the committee in opposition to the bill.

Pat Davis, wife of U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis, R-4th, expressed her concern a prescription mandate would unfairly burden mothers like herself who have children who suffer from allergies.

"Children with allergies, like my children, use the products on a regular basis," Davis said. "There are going to be substantial out-of-pocket expenses for the vast majority of Kentuckians."

At the rally later that afternoon, Rogers drew a thunderous welcome from the crowd that filled the Rotunda and overflowed into hallways and upper balconies.

Rogers cited the death of Kayden Branham, a Somerset toddler who died in 2009 after drinking drain cleaner, another ingredient for making methamphetamine, at an alleged meth lab in the home of his teenage parents.

More recently, Rogers said two young children from Leslie County ended up in a hospital burn unit after a meth lab accident.

Many of those at the rally were holding banners with a photo of Kayden, who died just two months short of his second birthday.

Rogers drew cheers when he said the pseudoephedrine legislation is essential for the safety of children and to eliminate the scourge of meth labs.

Sen. Tom Jensen, R-London, who is sponsoring the bill in the Senate, originally delayed the vote on the bill because Sen. Ray Jones, D-Pikeville, could not make the morning hearing. But Jones was able to get to the Capitol by afternoon and the committee held a special meeting to approve the bill, just at the time when supporters were gathering in the Rotunda.

A similar bill, House Bill 281, proposed by Rep. Linda Belcher, D-Shepherdsville, is pending in the House.

Proponents of the measure argue that limiting access by putting those drugs behind the pharmacy counter and using an electronic monitoring system to track sales has not been successful in curbing methamphetamine production.

But opponents say it would unfairly burden patients and limit the ability of law enforcement to track down meth makers because it would eliminate the electronic tracking system.

Jensen said he believes the move to schedule the drug would go a long way toward curbing the rising meth lab problem in Kentucky.

Kentucky State Police officials who testified on Thursday said 1,078 labs were found throughout the state in 2010.

Jensen said the hearings shed much needed light on the dangers of methamphetamine.
"It affects innocent bystanders," he told The Courier-Journal.

Currently, a patient can buy only 9 grams of pseudoephedrine within a 30-day period and must sign a log book to get the medication.

The only other states that have passed similar legislation, Oregon and Mississippi, both have reported drastic reductions in the number of meth labs, though people opposed to the prescription effort say those numbers do not indicate similar measures in Kentucky would be successful.

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