Claritin doesn't contain pseudoephedrine and isn't behind the counter.

So Wyden wants me to pay $110 for an office visit to get a prescription for a stuffy nose? Not likely.

Yeah, I'm guessing its more that Mexico finally banned it completely there mr. DA. Many people I knew bought sudafed etc. out of state and hoarded it while resenting being treated like effing druggies.

Hopefully pharma companies will come up with a better pill that doesnt also make a good party drug.

Medford has not experienced a steep decline; it has experienced a rise in crime, above the national average. Hard not to think any reduction in methamphetamine manufacture is a good thing, but one thing we have seen locally is a rise in Mexican drug cartel involvement in marijuana growing. Marijuana doesn't scare me but the drug cartels should scare everyone.

Its still available in Washington without a script. (Although its behind the pharmacist's counter, and you have show ID & sign your name for it, which is a federal law IIRC.) What has their crime rate done in comparison? I just buy the generic at the Walmart in Vancouver. Its only $1.50 per box.

The economic effects can be theorized:

PSE becomes a mandated control requiring more people to seek physician care. Let's face it, the OTC alternative is placebo. It has substantially, medically proven, reduced effects as PSE. These physicians require insurance, thus increasing health insurance burdens, thus increasing insurance premiums for EVERYONE in Oregon.

Funny how the same people who voted for Obamacare and a supposed reduction in health care costs deliberately contributed to a rise in cost in Oregon. What's even funnier is my relative worked in the Oregon Partnership that pushed that legislation to the state.

Socialism is a dirty, dirty word.

Putting that stuff as prescription only has increased the price and hurt the general population because its replacement DOES NOT WORK!

METH is made in Mexico these days!

The drug war is a dismal failure, and I agree completely with Walter Williams.

I love the way this propaganda is so easily spinned!

As an allergy sufferer, I was very angry when this law went into effect.

Result: driving over the river to Vancouver to get a decongestant that actually reduced nasal congestion. Phenylalanine doesn't do a damn thing for me. Now, in Ohio, I can just go to the supermarket again and purchase it OTC at the pharmacy. Screw the Oregon laws that treat allergy sufferers as criminals.

Side note: Claritin (Loratadine HCl) is just an antihistamine, and does not include pseudoephedrine. Claritin-D does - the 'D' stands for decongestant, which is mixed in with the same antihistamine.

Myself, I use generic Zyrtec (Cetirizine HCl 10mg) purchased at Costco. 365 tablets for under $20 as opposed to 100 Zyrtec™ tablets for over $40, and it's chemically the same damn thing.

Bovett is wrong. What we did was trade made in Oregon methamphetamine for Mexican national labs. The cartels have grown stronger because they moved in and took over what was once somewhat the realm of Oregon dopers; cooking up meth.

The net effect is that Oregon is safer with respect to backyard meth labs, but methamphetamine didn't go away, and the pseudo laws didn't effect crime other than the unlawful manufacture of methamphetamine. And it did make it a bigger hassle for someone with a cold to get medicine that actually works without crossing into Washington.