State lawmakers are looking for some way to slow the production of illegal methamphetamine without requiring a prescription for its ingredient.
Legislation is being considered that would make Tennessee just the third state to require a doctor’s signature before buying medicine containing pseudoephedrine.
Tennessee Meth Task Force chief Tommy Farmer told lawmakers he doesn’t know what else to do.
“We have attempted everything.”
But after reviewing tracking data for last year when nearly 750,000 packs of cold medicine were sold in Tennessee, some lawmakers are talking about less drastic steps first. For example, cashiers are still allowed to override a new monitoring system that restricts cold medicine sales.
Pharmaceutical companies helped block a prescription push last year. They released a poll Wednesday showing more than half of Tennesseans oppose making cold medicine available by prescription only.