Governor signs new pseudoephedrine law Wednesday

Wednesday, April 7th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Wednesday, Oklahoma ventured into ground breaking territory. Oklahoma is the first state in the country to put a limit on what used to be over-the-counter sales of pseudoephedrine cold tablets.

Governor Brad Henry signed the legislation at the state capitol Wednesday afternoon.

As News on 6 consumer reporter Rick Wells explains, it's going to change how and where you can buy cold medicine.

Drug Warehouse and Mays Drug locations have had pseudoephedrine tablets locked up for more than a year. Methamphetamine producers were not buying it they were stealing it, this has reduced the theft. This new law will change the way you and I buy cold tablets.

Pharmacy area supervisor Steve Chase: "You're gonna be able to go to the pharmacy window ask for a Sudaphed containing product and purchase it through the pharmacy there."

The new restrictions apply to all tablets containing any pseudoephedrine, liquids and gel caps are exempt. Apparently it is just too difficult to extract the pseudoephedrine from anything but the tablets. The purchase of the product will require a photo ID and a signature, so there will be a permanent record of every purchase.

But law enforcers say just buying the product will not put us on any kind of watch list, the law allows us 9 grams in 30 days without a prescription, that's a lot. "If you took the maximum recommended dose which is 8 pills every day for thirty days, that's only 7,200 milligrams in a 30 day period, or 7.2 grams, and you're well within what the law allows."

Other provisions which affect the way we buy cold remedies, stores without a pharmacy must stop selling tablets containing pseudoephedrine, and eventually the computer network which connects all pharmacies to the state will track these purchases so customers won't be able to exceed the 9 gram limit.

The bottom line, pseudoephedrine is now controlled. So if we want to control sinus congestion, we're gonna need our driver's license.

These changes won't happen right away. Pharmacies have 60 days to set up a system of logging their pseudoephedrine sales and to get the products moved behind the counter.