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Profits, not public interest...
Warren County Commonwealth's Attorney Chris Cohron goes on record stating that the Washington, D.C.-based Consumer Healthcare Products Association's expenditure of nearly $195,000 in Frankfort shows the group is all about its profits, not about Kentucky. Quoted in an editorial in the Bowling Green Daily News, which shares his opinion, Cohron said, "I think it shows you without question that it is solely about money for CHPA and the pharmaceutical industry." Read more.
"An almost obscene amount of money..."
That's how Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers (R-Manchester) characterized the $194,197 spent in one month's time for a lobbying effort led by big drug companies that will ensure pseudoephedrine is kept readily available for drug dealers who use it to make methamphetamine. Read the news article.
You can still buy over-the-counter cold meds.
The proposed legislation doesn't require prescriptions for cold meds when they are in "liquid, liquid capsule or gel capsule form." Don't be fooled by those who say you will have to go to the doctor to get your cold meds. In fact, you will still have the option to buy over 140 cold meds over-the-counter. This legislation ONLY pertains to the pseudoephedrine sold in tablet form. Police estimate that 70 percent of the pseudoephedrine sold in tablet form goes to illegal meth labs.
Big drug companies want to save profits, not lives.
Big drug companies are behind an effort to stop Kentucky SB172, legislation that would again require prescriptions for some forms of medications containing the base chemicals ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, necessary in the making of meth. Drug companies say they are concerned about consumer convenience, but are actually focused on profits...so much so that they are willing to spend nearly $195,000 in a single month on lobbying efforts to oppose SB172. The tracking system proposed by the big drug companies as an alternative has already failed in other states and the meth crisis continues to soar. Read the Courier-Journal editorial supporting this bill.
Real facts point to a real solution
Prior to 1976, the medications containing the base chemicals used to make meth were prescription-only. Once they were allowed to be sold over-the-counter, the meth epidemic exploded. The state of Oregon was the first state to again require prescriptions for these medications. Oregon has seen a 96% reduction in meth lab incidents, having all but eliminated meth production. Mississippi has followed suit and has seen an 80% reduction in drug-endangered children since enacting a prescription-only law. How many more lives need to be lost in Kentucky before we stand up to big drug companies here?
Is there a ticking time bomb in your neighborhood?
The answer may surprise you.
Neighborhoods are being evacuated for fear of explosion. Innocent babies and children are neglected, suffering and dying...some burned from the inside out because they've ingested the toxic chemicals that are part of the home meth lab environment in which they live. Law enforcement officers are facing new dangers as they discover one-stop meth labs and dismantle them. Seven law enforcement officers in Kentucky were injured within a 30-day timespan between December 2011 and the start of 2012 alone. Meth use is everyone's crisis.
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