Finally, phenylephrine has been known for a long time to be ineffective and no better than placebo in trials.
CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless
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Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless
#72And this means we're going to have an easier time buying the stuff that works...right? ...right?
It's already easy to buy the stuff that works. You just have to go up to the counter and ask. You have to show ID, just like you do for liquor (and, because purchases of psuedoephedrine are rate-limited, they're going to log your purchase). You'll need to get over that, because I don't think the rate limit is going anywhere: psuedoephedrine essentially is methamphetamine, and it's the worst conceivable kind: the kind…
It's not easy in my state. It goes like this: go to inside counter of an open pharmacy (can't use drive thru for it). Wait, for a long time (aren't all of your pharmacies massively overloaded with 30-60m lines? ours are). Ask for a 96-count sudafed (generic or regular) and hope they have it. If they don't, get 48. If they don't, get 24 (forget that I need 2 tabs every day as prescribed by my doctor -- yet can only buy 1 box/month no matter how many are in it so if I can't get 96 I can't get enough). Provide ID. Hope that the state verification system is up, because in my state it goes down ALL THE TIME and so frequently the process stops here only to be retried at some random future time/place. Do this each and every month as many times as it takes.
Forget that meth use has gone up in the face of all this insanity. It now flows in massively from Mexico. IOW, this isn't stopping meth use. Also forget that for years people like me were told that if we didn't like it we should use the drug that just now got officially tagged as having never worked (duh, we all knew this within one day of the first time sudafed went behind the counter).
Sudafed is one of the hardest to acquire substances out there, and the burden falls on those who really need it. I'm glad it's easy for you, but it's not for many many people.
Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless
#73And this means we're going to have an easier time buying the stuff that works...right? ...right?
It's already easy to buy the stuff that works. You just have to go up to the counter and ask. You have to show ID, just like you do for liquor (and, because purchases of psuedoephedrine are rate-limited, they're going to log your purchase). You'll need to get over that, because I don't think the rate limit is going anywhere: psuedoephedrine essentially is methamphetamine, and it's the worst conceivable kind: the kind…
> You'll need to get over that
I'm going to continue bitching about it, thanks.
Enough people pointing of the obvious stupidity of this kind of insipid nanny bullshit (that everyone knew would not solve the problem being address, and said so at the time) might make the next nanny idiot think twice.
And if it doesn't, then they can take the criticism anyway, because they deserve the grief. No, good intentions don't make it OK when you're talking public policy.
Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Real sudafed is OTC, you just need to ask for it at the counter. No prescription is required. They just don't have it on shelves, because they require you to show your ID when purchasing it. I'm assuming this is so they can track how much a person is buying to track people who are using it for illicit purposes.
This category of drugs are referred to as Behind the Counter, https://www.fda.gov/drugs/information-drug-class/legal-requi...
Interesting, today I learned it had a more specific term. Still, saying something "isn't OTC" implies you need a prescription to most people. At least in my experience.
Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless
#75And this means we're going to have an easier time buying the stuff that works...right? ...right?
Never! We're still fighting a war on drugs, and it's crucial that the government know the names of all allergy sufferers. If people could have as much Sudafed as they wanted then... they might be able to smell all of the marijuana smoke outside, which would make the war on drugs look ineffective. We mustn't have that.
(8 people will reply to me saying that people buy pseudoephedrine and make meth badly and blow up their chemistry lab, killing their neighbors. I'm sure that's happened, but if we want to reduce the number of people that die every year, the truck that delivers the stuff probably has a higher body count. But cars good, drugs bad. I've lived in this country long enough to know how it works.)
Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless
#76Wasn't this the one they substituted with a half arsed version because the real deal was being bulk bought and cooked into meth? I guess new version being useless for meth cooking isn't the only thing it is useless at
Yes, and there's been evidence that is was garbage for years.
Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
You will have an easier time inasmuch as you will no longer think, as almost everyone did, that your purchase of phenylephrine is adequate. The hardest pseudoephedrine to buy is the one you don't think you need.
This is a difficult comment to parse
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Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's already easy to buy the stuff that works. You just have to go up to the counter and ask. You have to show ID, just like you do for liquor (and, because purchases of psuedoephedrine are rate-limited, they're going to log your purchase). You'll need to get over that, because I don't think the rate limit is going anywhere: psuedoephedrine essentially is methamphetamine, and it's the worst conceivable kind: the kind…
> You just have to go up to the counter and ask. You have to show ID, just like you do for liquor (and, because purchases of psuedoephedrine are rate-limited, they're going to log your purchase) Up to the counter and ask...when the counter is open that is increasingly a problem as pharmacies close and hours are limited (the two nearest me close at 6pm, right at the end of working hours). Show ID...that the pharmacist…
> Rate-limited...at a quantity too low for a household that has a sinus infection running around.
I don't think so. I actually buy this stuff for allergies because it's the only thing that works for me and doesn't disrupt my sleep one way or another.
I get 60 pills which are 2x what's in cold medication. I get that it's annoying but for an illness it's more than enough for a large family.
Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless
#79And this means we're going to have an easier time buying the stuff that works...right? ...right?
It's already easy to buy the stuff that works. You just have to go up to the counter and ask. You have to show ID, just like you do for liquor (and, because purchases of psuedoephedrine are rate-limited, they're going to log your purchase). You'll need to get over that, because I don't think the rate limit is going anywhere: psuedoephedrine essentially is methamphetamine, and it's the worst conceivable kind: the kind…
I'm never giving up on this as an issue. You don't just have to go up to the counter and ask and wait behind all of the people getting prescriptions filled- you get rate limited, never mind if you are buying it for a whole family, never mind if your previous supply was destroyed. I almost wish it were illegal, as black markets would make it easier to buy.
Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless
#80[deleted]