By Rose Krzton-Presson
Kentucky – The Kentucky General Assembly reconvenes Tuesday; and Democratic Representative Brent Yonts is sponsoring a bill to monitor the sales of over the counter medicines that contain pseudoephedrine-an ingredient of meth. A similar bill failed last year. But Yonts, feels his bill has a better chance of passing both chambers because of a change related to existing meth offenders.
"Moms and Dads buy them all the time for their kids when they have the sniffles and allergies and they work. But pseudoephedrine is a common ingredient in methamphetamines. The bill I have would simply say that all those who have been convicted of a meth-related crime would be inputted into a system that already exists at the pharmacy counter."
That system currently serves to track how much of these medicines an individual buys per month. Yonts wants to expand it to also notify the pharmacist if the individual buying the cold medicine has been convicted in the past. Those individuals would then be required to get a prescription in order to buy the medicine.