JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Law enforcement officials and other groups in Mississippi are lobbying lawmakers to require a prescription to buy cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine — a key ingredient in methamphetamine.
The proposal comes as the state’s drug scourge reaches unprecedented levels. Last year, meth arrests outnumbered those for cocaine.
Oregon is currently the only state with such a law on the books, and some municipalities in Missouri have adopted similar ordinances restricting medicines such as Sudafed.
However, cold medicine manufacturers say a real-time tracking system would be more effective. Consumer Healthcare Products Association says similar systems have been approved in Oklahoma, Kentucky and Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana and Missouri.
