Indiana Legislators Consider Requiring Prescription To Obtain Pseudoephedrine

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma says he will personally throw his support behind legislation to make pseudoephedrine – a common ingredient in cold medicine – available only through prescription.  The measure is aimed at curbing the state’s meth crisis.

Indiana has led the nation in meth production for three consecutive years; pseudoephedrine is a key ingredient.  Bosma says the state’s existing effort – a tracking system intended to limit how much pseudoephedrine a person can buy – isn’t enough.  He says he knows that making it a prescription only drug is an inconvenience.

“But we are losing precious resources, human resources, in our state to this scourge,” Bosma said.

The 2016 session won’t be the first time the legislature deals with the issue, and Senate Minority Leader Tim Lanane notes the burden on families to obtain a pseudoephedrine prescription has been a primary reason the proposal has been defeated in the past.

“Does it ruin it for the rest of us in terms of inconvenience," Lanane said. "It does, to a degree but sometimes you have to do that for the sake of taking care of the problem.”

The legislature will begin debating the measure in January.