Recent state legislation won’t change the way some Valley drugstores sell Sudafed.
Last week, the General Assembly approved a bill allowing pharmacists to refuse filling a prescription for pseudoephedrine cold medicine, like decongestants, if they suspect the customer intends to make methamphetamine.
“That’s always the way I practice medicine,” said Lynn Hostetler, who owns Lynn’s Pharmacy in Brazil. “If I thought it was in a patient’s best interest not to have something, I refuse to fill it.
“So this just gives the legal right to pharmacists to say no,” he said.
Senate Bill 80 is the latest move from lawmakers to address homemade meth labs. If Gov. Mike Pence signs the act, it becomes law on July 1.
Lynn’s Pharmacy does not sell medicines containing pseudoephedrine to customers who live outside Clay County, Hostetler said. Employees ask for a driver’s license.
If the customer’s a local resident, but Hostetler doesn’t recognize them, he strikes up a conversation to see if their story matches up.
Pharmacists typically “bend over backwards,” he said, to fill a prescription. Body language usually gives away a customer’s illicit plans, and Hostetler said most in his profession can spot a fake prescription from “20 steps away.”
State law already limits consumers to buying 3.6 grams of pseudoephedrine or ephedrine (such as diet pills) per day, 7.2 grams per month and 61.2 grams in a one-year period.
Prior to selling those products over-the-counter, retailers must electronically submit the name and address of each purchaser, type of product and its pseudoephedrine or ephedrine content and other information into a national logging system.
Consumers are required to sign a logbook tracking the amount purchased.
A 30-day supply of Sudafed 12 Hour represents the legal amount consumers can buy in a month, according to a Purdue Extension study.
Despite the law, Purdue researchers found, more Hoosier meth addicts sought treatment between 2003, before sales controls were enacted, and 2013, when the latest version took effect.
Over that period, admissions to substance abuse treatment facilities for meth addictions rose from 4.2 percent to 6.6 percent, according to the extension.
Researchers cited data from the Indiana Methamphetamine Investigation System.
The number of meth labs seized in Vigo County has also risen over the past couple of years, according to Indiana State Police.
Vigo ranked fifth statewide in 2015, with 53 labs busted by either state police or other agencies. The county was 10th in the state in 2014, with 37 labs.
There were 501 meth lab seizures in Vigo County from 2001-2013, state police said.
Hostetler isn’t the only Valley pharmacist who restricts the sale of pseudoephedrine.
Ed Walker, owner of Milburn Health Pharmacy in Sullivan, carries only a limited supply of decongestant products.
“If I’m not familiar with you, I won’t sell it,” he said.
A specific encounter with a customer prompted that approach. Walker recalled that a man, who he said had an expired license, became violent when refused cold medicine.
“Then I determined the $3 to $4 sale wasn’t worth the risk of endangering my customers or myself,” Walker said.