Some of the regulated products containing pseudoephedrine, that is used to make meth, gathered in two drawers in the back of the T. Roy Barnes Drugery in Tulsa. MICHAEL WYKE/Tulsa World file
More than 60 percent of Oklahomans surveyed oppose requiring a prescription for the allergy and cold drug pseudoephedrine, which is a key ingredient in meth labs.
The recent survey by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, which is against requiring a prescription, found 43 percent strongly oppose the idea and 19 percent somewhat oppose the idea.
Making pseudoephedrine available by prescription only was proposed in a bill introduced in last year's state Legislature. It was hotly debated but wasn't passed.
Oklahoma limits how much medication with pseudoephedrine that people can buy and tracks purchases in a multistate registry.
The foundation interviewed 2,020 people, including 300 in Oklahoma, which was one of four states that were oversampled.
All of the participants were adults who had purchased nonprescription medication for nasal allergies, asthma, cold, cough or flu in the past year.
Nationally, 62 percent of people surveyed oppose requiring a prescription, down from 71 percent in 2010.
In Oklahoma, 66 percent of those surveyed said they personally suffered from nasal allergies. They said they had the symptoms more than three months out of the year.
Russell Kohl, professor of family medicine at the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine, said he wasn't surprised by the results and doesn't know of many physicians who support the idea of requiring a prescription.
Doctors aren't good at restricting drug usage. If they were, prescription painkiller abuse would be less of a problem in Oklahoma, he said.
"It just does not accomplish the tasks that a lot of advocates hope it accomplishes by making it prescription," he said.
It would require a doctor's visit for symptoms people can easily diagnose on their own and would be an inconvenience, as well as an added expense, he said.
"There's not a whole lot of indication that you should have to take a half-day off work, go to the doctor's office, get a prescription for something that has been shown to be safe and effective for use," he said.
Tulsa District Attorney Tim Harris, who supports requiring a prescription, said doctors would be unlikely to require a visit and a simple phone call would likely get a patient a prescription.
He, too, was not surprised by the results because he's found most people say they are unwilling to agree to any inconvenience for themselves, even if it curbs meth lab use, he said.
More than 90 percent of Oklahomans surveyed said they see meth as a problem for the community and nearly 60 percent had seen or heard news about pseudoephedrine, according to the survey.
"We've got this overwhelming consensus that it's a problem, but it boils down to this: If it makes my life just a little bit more complicated than it is already, I don't want to play ball," Harris said.
Taxpayers are picking up the costs of meth labs in criminal prosecutions and child welfare proceedings, but they don't realize it, he said.
"Whose calculating the costs of that?" he said. "See, those are the hidden costs that society doesn't want to deal with."
Shannon Muchmore 918-581-8378
shannon.muchmore@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Poll: Drug restrictions opposed
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