Big government is so comprehensively useless and needlessly intrusive that even when it does something that seems on the surface to be a good and needed measure, it all too often turns out to be just making matters worse. That was the case on Tuesday, when the FDA declared that phenylephrine, a decongestant found in popular brands including Sudafed PE and DayQuil, doesn’t work. It has actually been public knowledge for years that phenylephrine didn’t work, but the government previously forced it upon us by restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine, which does work but can be used to make meth. Penalizing law-abiding citizens in order to take ineffective measures against the manufacture of illicit drugs? That’s Washington all over.
MedPage Today reported Tuesday that “all 16 voting members of the Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee at a meeting held on September 11 and 12 voted against the drug,” that is, phenylephrine, “being effective for nasal congestion when used as labeled.” The Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee is part of the FDA. But why was this ineffective drug being used in the first place? Because of the same FDA.
The FDA’s website still contains a page entitled “Legal Requirements for the Sale and Purchase of Drug Products Containing Pseudoephedrine, Ephedrine, and Phenylpropanolamine.” This page has apparently been there for quite some time, as it explains the significance of the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 as if it were a new measure. That act banned “over-the-counter sales of cold medicines that contain ingredients that are commonly used to make methamphetamine such as pseudoephedrine.” One could still get decongestants that contained pseudoephedrine, but only in limited amounts, as buying them in large amounts was considered to be a sign that someone was making meth.
In setting up this rule, the FDA openly stated that it was disregarding the health and well-being of ordinary, law-abiding Americans. The “Legal Requirements” webpage includes a Q&A that features this question: “I have chronic sinus problems. Will I be limited from getting the amount of pseudoephedrine I need?” The answer is brutally forthright: “Yes, with this new law there will be limits on the number of tablets of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or phenylpropanolamine that can be purchased in a 30-day period. As there are many different dosages and formulations of these products, you should ask your pharmacist how much you will be allowed to purchase over a 30-day period for specific product you use.” In other words, we don’t care if you’re suffering, you’re not going to get more than a trickle of pseudoephedrine. Blow your nose, peasant.
Enforcement of this rule has been brutal. In one notorious incident back in 2009, a grandmother in Indiana named Sally Harpold was arrested and handcuffed for buying two boxes of cold medication in the space of one week, because that put her over the limit for the amount of pseudoephedrine one was allowed to buy in the period of seven days. Reason magazine noted at that time that no one thought that Harpold was making meth or helping anyone else do so, but police and local authorities were unapologetic. Vermillion County Prosecutor Nina Alexander pointed out that “the law does not make this distinction” between someone who was buying pseudoephedrine to make meth and someone who was simply trying to deal with a stuffy nose. Alexander insisted, “I’m simply enforcing the law as it was written.” Yeah. That was the problem, and it still is: the law as it is written.
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This law hasn’t even done anything effective to stop the manufacture of methamphetamine. Anyone who watched the celebrated TV series Breaking Bad knows that those who make meth simply get people to buy small amounts of pseudoephedrine from a number of different places, thereby easily circumventing the limits. And meanwhile, law-abiding Americans have had to settle for products containing substitute ingredients that the FDA now admits do not work.
The best outcome of this ridiculous government-created boondoggle would be for the FDA to remove all restrictions on the sale of pseudoephedrine. If they’re worried about meth, they should go after those who are making and selling it, instead of punishing law-abiding Americans who do not abuse illegal drugs. But the chances of that happening are roughly equivalent to the chance that the Biden regime will call off the legal proceedings against Donald Trump, admit the whole thing was a political witch hunt, and apologize.
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