Same law for all states? (sorta long)

[Midnight12]

In Texas this is the law for medicine, be it pills, or certain first aid items (*explanation at end)
a customer cannot ABSOLUTELY cannot buy more than three total.
not three of each item,
not three different versions of the same brand, three TOTAL
WHY? Because in this state we have people that like to buy medicine and combine it with whatever and turn it into an illegal drug then sell it!

the most RECENT part is when things were put behind the counter at the pharmacy because you can OD on them or get high and many medicines changed brands to stay on the counter etc
the last customer that got on my case over this is a "stupid law" was a local
basically threw the stuff at me and started screaming this is BS and its a stupid law and threw a tantrum basically. So after he calmed down I finally said in a normal tone "Are you bitching because you didn't KNOW or because you're a drug dealer that has had his supplies cut off?" And ended with a grin, he left immediately. That night I put in my two weeks notice thats the last straw that a customer bitched at me and I had NO manager/floor supervisor back up because said person was chasing after his GF around the store or screwing in the office/safe room

*Explanation
Some disinfectants come in spray bottles (yeah for science) but they have aresol in the can which can be used to huff or get high from
apparently some first aid kits have tylenol or small packets of pills in there than can be OD'ed on (over dosed)
the list goes on
Basically Texas got paranoid so they put this in effect for EVERYTHING

I'm not EVEN going to get into the fact of how poorly the pharmacy was locked and people would sneak in and steal stuff from it!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

In Wisconsin, the law states you can only buy 3 boxes of any medication containing pseudoephedrine at a time, I believe. I'm not aware of any law saying you can only buy only 3 of certain items at a time.

Must just be a Texas thing. Sure sounds stupid to me.

[Greenday]

New Jersey not too long ago just started a law that says you can only buy so many mg of certain drugs per month and we have to keep track. Because of this, certain stuff has to be kept behind the counter.

[Drakstern]

Ohio regulates Pseudoephedrine heavily. Like in NJ, they keep active track of how much you buy.

I just got over a cold for which I bought some decongestants and had to sign for them after they documented how much I bought. Had to show ID too.

[AFpheonix]

The sudafed thing is a federal law now, except for my state, which made it all prescription only. No more logbook for me, whee!

However, warehouse has not been sending us sudafed for a few weeks, and it's like pulling teeth to get it from our secondary supplier.
Riddle me this: We can and do get CASES of vicodin and oxycodone, but sudafed is a restricted item, even to a legitimate pharmacy like ours? WTF?

[Sofar]

When I had a cold about a month ago I found out that you can't buy Redbull and Dayquil at the same time. (Dayquil doesn't work now that they've changed the recipe, but if you mix it with Redbull it does.)

[Kara]

Kansas may not have much, but we do have a lot of meth labs. The news has fairly frequent reports of houses exploding while people who failed basic math and science classes tried to mix chemicals and set them on fire. So we've had the pseudoephedrine restriction for years. Every pharmacy has it behind the counter.

Funny story, a couple of years ago I was at Target and there were a couple of police cars out front. I went back to the pharmacy area to pick up a few things, and there was a cop talking to the pharmacists, and they were all laughing. It seems these 3 guys came in and each one bought the allowable limit of Sudafed. The pharmacist could tell they were all together, so she called the police. When the cops arrived, they found these geniuses had a mobile meth lab in the back of their van, and are sitting in the parking lot, with the back doors open, "cooking" their product. One of the guys slammed the back doors and when the officer questioned them they all the sudden couldn't speak English (the pharmacist was telling the policeman that they spoke perfect English when they were in the store). So the officer's hispanic partner walked up and they new they were screwed.

[BlaqueKatt]

I buy tylenol sinus for my headaches, and wait until the pharmacist is less busy*, hand over my card and ID for one box(3-4 month supply for me), and happily sign the logbook-I figure it's a slight inconvenience for me, but probably a major one for the pharmacist, so I try to make it as easy as possible for them.


*I tend to ask if they have time for a logged sale, and if not I'm willing to wait a bit(for me a reasonable wait for about anything is around 45 min or so)

[ominousoat]

Nebraska we're supposed to "keep an eye" on such things, and if the medicinal purchase appears to be "suspicious" call the cops...or something.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I used to get Tylenol Sinus, or just Tylenol and Sudafed (well, store brands anyway), and when it went behind the counter I got the new formulation of sudafed that's still out on the shelf. It doesn't work as well; I guess I'll have to ask for the real stuff when I run out.

[toolbert]

In california I believe the laws are similar. I know that for some medicines you have to show ID to get it. My mother lucked out that I was with her when she was buying some cold medicine since she left her ID at home. It stinks that we have to have these laws, but at least it stops some of the illegal activities.

[bigjimaz]

Basically Texas got paranoid so they put this in effect for EVERYTHING

I'll forgive them. At least they carry out their death sentences instead of letting the criminals turn them into life sentences with a lifelong string of appeals as in PA.

[wildcatgrrl]

It seems these 3 guys came in and each one bought the allowable limit of Sudafed. The pharmacist could tell they were all together, so she called the police.

There's actually a name for this activity: smurfing. Courtesy of urban dictionary:

3. smurfing Purchasing small amounts of pseudoephedrine in several stores or by groups of people, with the purpose of using it to make metamphetamine.

Ex. They're off to smurf every pharmacy in the main street.

When I first heard the term, it was supposedly from a bunch of people (like a village) coming in together to buy little blue cold pills, not that the people were blue.

[Argabarga]

The pseudo law was Federal, yes, but individual states can ratchet it up higher if they wish, but, nobody can be more lenient than what the Feds set the baseline as.

The stuff that didn't go behind the counter switched to an older generation decongestant, phenelepherine (did I spell that right?) but it's hardly a match for PSE, (Duh, PSE replaced it)

[MrSunshineState]

We don't have to sign any logbooks in Florida. I am not sure about buying large quantities of something or a mixture of things though. I do know however, that they have started moving alot of things behind the counter. Especially my Benzendrex inhailers. Those things are lifesavers during Florida summers! Pollen can really get to you.