OPINION

OUR VIEW: Don’t over-regulate pseudoephedrine

Law enforcement and local government are ramping up the war on meth in Clarksville-Montgomery County, and generally speaking, that’s obviously a good thing.

Now, however, measures being weighed at the Courthouse might be construed as a step over the line of real public protection.

Meth is a key topic among this year’s set of requests from the Montgomery County Commission to the Tennessee General Assembly. The county’s Legislative Liaison Committee is asking the commission to vote “yes” Monday night on a measure asking state officials to “support and actively advocate for ephedrine and pseudoephedrine to be classified as ... controlled substances available only through prescription and subject to state prescription monitoring laws.”

It is said that this will help curb the illegal manufacturing of meth, an assumption which perhaps holds some truth. The question becomes, however, does it penalize innocent consumers of these cold and allergy medicines even more than those who manufacture meth?

No question about it, the meth problem is here in a big way. The overall growth of meth labs found locally over the last 20 months ranks Montgomery County fourth among the state’s 95 counties for meth lab seizures, Sheriff John Fuson has said.

Statewide, meth lab busts are down, however, but the illegal drug is coming into the state in a cheaper and stronger version from Mexico, smuggled by the same drug cartels that bring in heroin and cocaine.

The drop in the number of meth labs seized this year might be due in part to restrictions on pseudoephedrine, an ingredient used for cooking meth in small batches.

A new state law sets limits on the purchase of such medicines. Montgomery County seems poised to follow some other Tennessee communities – more than a dozen, in all – that have established stricter regulations, requiring a doctor’s prescription for medicines with pseudoephedrine.

But this is where the involvement of government in private enterprise becomes too intrusive. Basic economics dictate that innocent consumers will suffer as costs skyrocket for those millions who have chronic sinus ailments – illnesses that, in many cases, can be treated with over-the-counter pseudoephedrine-based medicines. County Commissioner Wallace Redd was vocal in his opposition to the latest resolution that’s before commissioners this week, for this and other, related reasons.

We suggest that, rather than requiring a doctor’s visit with every case of sinusitis – which is essentially what such a state mandate would achieve – the existing regulations which track excessive repeat purchases of pseudoephedrine should be aggressively enforced, and maybe even strengthened.

But to ban sales without a prescription is overkill and even smacks of special interests trying to bolster the medical and pharmaceutical industry. Here in Montgomery County, which borders a state line, there is ample reason to suspect that such regulation will send Tennessee patients into Kentucky to avoid the requirement, which increases the inconvenience for citizens who legitimately need medications with pseudoephredrine and would reduce local sales tax income.

As troubling as the meth problem has become, we should not punish law-abiding consumers beyond reason in a single-source attempt to control it.