News / Health & Wellness
Cold Meds Tracking Dangers
Tracking measures were meant to curb meth production by limiting the availability of raw ingredients, but they have spawned a new black market.
If you’ve headed to the pharmacy to buy cold medicine in the past few years, it’s likely you’ve had to go through the hassle of asking for the medication at the pharmacy counter, showing ID and signing for what used to be an over-the-counter medication. Now it turns out that these electronic systems that track sales of the cold medicine used to make methamphetamine have failed to curb the drug trade, according to the Associated Press. What’s worse, these systems meant to protect us have created a vast, highly lucrative market for profiteers to buy over-the-counter pills and sell them to meth producers at a huge markup. The AP’s review of federal data shows that the lure of easy money has drawn thousands of new people into the meth underworld, creating a sub-criminal culture.
As the meth epidemic continued to grow, several states turned to the electronic systems. This was meant to make it harder to obtain the base ingredients for making meth. But it has not worked as intended. Now, individuals can buy a box of pills legally for under $10 and can sell it for up to seven times that amount. This lucrative black market is drawing those who have no interest in meth beyond what the money they can make from selling pseudoephedrine.
Efforts to limit the availability of pseudoephedrine gained momentum in 2005, when Congress passed the Combat Meth Act in 2005, limiting the sales of the decongestant and two other key ingredients used in meth. Since tracking laws were enacted beginning in 2006, meth busts nationwide started to rise again. Some experts attribute that to the black market for cold pills, others point to trafficking by Mexican cartels and new methods for making small amounts of meth.
So is tracking helping to curb the production and use of meth or is it merely opening new money-making channels for those willing to capitalize on those struggling with addiction? Either way, meth is dangerous and aggressive efforts to curb use of the drug need to continue.
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