I have a cold. I had to buy some cold meds last night. In order to do so, I went through a screening process that rivals what one goes through when boarding a plane. Why? Because I need a decongestant.

I used to swear by NyQuil and DayQuil. NyQuil did the job at night, and DayQuil actually made me functional through the day when I had a cold. I don’t use them anymore, since they’ve been rendered useless due to a formula change.

All of this because we live in a reactionary and stupid society that will cut off its nose to spite its face. Because some clearly clever people figured out how to turn the pseudoephedrine in these products into crystal meth, the products became highly regulated — first at a federal level, then at a state level. The first blush at this regulation required me to walk to the counter and ask for it. Then, they would give it to me. I could handle this — it was inconvenient, but not terribly so. And, growing up in Canada, the same procedure exists for other meds, such as another favorite cold/cough medicine of mine, acetaminophen with an 8 mg dose of codeine — something you can’t get without a prescription in the U.S.

That was the first roadblock, and alone was enough to get Vicks to pull pseudoephedrine from its formulation because it couldn’t bear not having its actual product sitting on a shelf. Sales trump effectiveness when it comes to the business of selling drugs and medicines, and that meant that NyQuil and DayQuil would no longer be my cold med of choice.

Some drug makers are standing by their formulation, and even advertising that fact. Good for them, though I suspect it’s more borne out by the fact that without pseudoephedrine, their medicines would simply be ibuprofen. In any case, I still have options. But it’s gotten worse. Last night, when buying a generic form of Advil Cold and Sinus (basically ibuprofen and pseudoephedrine), I had to present my driver’s license or state ID, and fill out a form. To buy $5.00 worth of cold medicine. That’s more than I have to do when I’m picking up a prescribed medication!
So what has all this reactionary nonsense got us? Are we free of the scourge of meth labs? Hell, no. It takes a clearly clever person to think of turning cough medicine into meth, and these folks are going to keep turning other things into meth. So all we’ve really accomplished is that we’ve made it really inconvenient for sick people to get medicine that’s going to help them, and effectively removed one of the best cold medications from the market.

Great job! Hurrah!  *sniff*