Florida Governor Rick Scott has proposed cutting a program that would track prescription drugs in his state. Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear and Congressman Hal Rogers have asked Scott to reconsider.
Office of National Drug Control Policy director—or Drug Czar—Gil Kerlikowske says Florida needs to fight the prescription drug trade, since pills from that state are sold and abused in Kentucky and elsewhere.
Jensen says he would be open to a compromise on the meth bill. One option might be to exempt the gel form of pseudoephedrine from the prescription requirement.
A bill that would make cold medicines that contain the meth ingredient pseudoephedrine available by prescription only may have unintended consequences for many Kentuckians. The legislation will make the medicines unavailable to meth producers, but also to many of the state’s uninsured residents.
Late last year, Kentucky State Police trooper John Hawkins told WFPL the increase in meth lab busts was so sharp that police were on track to find more than one thousand before the end of the year…and they did.
The Governor says he wants to reduce the number of meth labs in the state, but is concerned about the effect of the measure on law-abiding citizens. In addition, he says it’s hard to know if any new law enforcement system is going to be effective before it’s implemented.
Rogers says 137 other cold and allergy remedies that don’t contain pseudoephedrine will be still be available over-the-counter. Despite the congressman’s appeal, the legislation has a steep hill to climb. No votes have been taken yet, but Pat Davis, wife of U.S. Congressman Geoff Davis of Kentucky, is among the opponents.
Pseudoephedrine, which is found in most over-the-counter cold and allergy medicines, is a key ingredient in illegally manufactured methamphetamine. And with the number of meth labs exploding in Kentucky, two bills requiring prescriptions for medicines containing pseudoephedrine have been introduced in Frankfort.
The Kentucky Narcotics Officers’ Association is pushing for state legislation that would require a doctor’s prescription for the purchase of pseudoephedrine. The drug, found in some cold medicines, is also a key ingredient in the manufacturing of methamphetamine. The state already requires that over-the-counter purchases of medicines containing pseudoephedrine be limited and tracked electronically, but […]
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has announced a partnership with Southern Indiana law enforcement to combat the high number of meth labs near the states’ common border. WFPL’s Elizabeth Kramer has more. Gov. Beshear and Indiana law enforcement officials in Clark and Floyd counties say they are going to share information using a Kentucky database to […]