Health News
By Al Cross
Kentucky Health News
The lobby for makers of over-the-counter drugs, which has fought laws to tighten controls on sale of cold medicine that is used to make methamphetamine, is starting a public-education campaign to discourage evasion of the system that tracks purchases of pseudoephedrine. The targeted states are Kentucky and Alabama, which could be key to preventing passage of laws like the one in Mississippi, which requires a prescription for pseudoephedrine. UPDATE, 4/19/13: Missouri has been added.
The Consumer Products Healthcare Association rolled out the campaign in Alabama last month. It joined with the Kentucky Pharmacists Association and the Kentucky Retail Federation yesterday to announce the program in Kentucky, and won the blessing of its primary adversary in the state's legislative battle, Senate Republican Leader Robert Stivers of Manchester. Also on hand at Wheeler's Pharmacy in Lexington was Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear, who had stayed out of the fight until he signed the bill.
Stivers, who is in line to become Senate president, was asked if the drug makers' move signaled a truce in the battle. He indicated that he would wait to see the impact of this year's law, which reduced the amount of pseudoephedrine that can be bought during one a month, before trying to tighten it. "Let's look at the history and see what happens," he said. Earlier, he said: "I appreciate the fact that they're coming here in a very conciliatory way, a very open way, to say we all know there is a problem."
Beshear noted that fewer meth labs have been found in Kentucky this year, but said the success of the law depends on educating the public: "As laws are passed, criminals adapt and find new ways of getting around them."
Preventing that is the goal of CHPA's "Anti-Smurfing Campaign," named for the practice of meth makers using others, "smurfs," to buy pseudoephedrine for them. Beshear noted that the new law makes smurfing a felony, and said the posters are "designed to make smurfers think twice" and "think of the moral and criminal consequences of their actions." He told cn|2 Politics, "I think will be a good deterrent in this situation."
CHPA's director of state government affairs, Carlos Gutiérrez, said the posters were tested in 2011 with focus groups of Kentuckians and strike a balance of educating potential smurfers without alarming law-abiding buyers of pseudoephedrine.
In its efforts to kill Stivers' prescription bill during the 2012 legislative session, CHPA spent more than any other lobbying group has ever reported spending on a legislative session, and that did not include hundreds of thousands of dollars it spent on radio commercials urging listeners to lobby legislators about the bill. Lobbies in Kentucky do not have to report what they spend on such indirect lobbying. Guiterrez was asked if CHPA would do that, and he said he would look into it.
- To Fight Meds-for-meth Bill, Consumer Healthcare Products Association Spent Almost $500,000 In Last Session, A Record
The biggest spender to lobby the Kentucky legislature in the 2012 session was the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which represents the over-the-counter drug industry. Of the $8.8 million spent in 2012 overall, the group spent nearly $500,000,...
- Meds-for-meth Bill Drew Record Lobbying Expenses, Not Even Including Radio And Newspaper Ad Campaigns
Makers of over-the-counter drugs spent more than any lobbying interest ever had during a single Kentucky legislative session in their effort to defeat a bill requiring prescriptions for the key ingredient in methamphetamine, Bill Estep reports for the...
- Compromise Meds-for-meth Bill Clears Committee; Third Drug-related Bill To Pass This Week
Update, March 2: Just hours after the committee approved the bill, Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, "declared its future uncertain," reports Jack Brammer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. Stivers said there is "a very successful lobbying...
- Group Fighting Meds-for-meth Bill Says It Spent Nearly $200,000 In January On Lobbying, And That Apparently Omits Radio Buys
The group fighting a bill that would make the key ingredient for making methamphetamine available only by prescription spent more than $194,000 last month alone to lobby lawmakers, far more than any other lobbying interest at the General Assembly. The...
- Senate Committee Narrowly Passes Meds-for-meth Bill As Advocates Start Their Own Radio Advertising Campaign
In the face of a strong lobbying effort by makers of over-the-counter cold medicines, a state Senate committee narrowly approved a bill today that would require a prescription for most products containing pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient used to make...
Health News
Over-the-counter drug makers start campaign to educate potential meth 'smurfers' about consequences of their actions
Kentucky Health News
The lobby for makers of over-the-counter drugs, which has fought laws to tighten controls on sale of cold medicine that is used to make methamphetamine, is starting a public-education campaign to discourage evasion of the system that tracks purchases of pseudoephedrine. The targeted states are Kentucky and Alabama, which could be key to preventing passage of laws like the one in Mississippi, which requires a prescription for pseudoephedrine. UPDATE, 4/19/13: Missouri has been added.
The Consumer Products Healthcare Association rolled out the campaign in Alabama last month. It joined with the Kentucky Pharmacists Association and the Kentucky Retail Federation yesterday to announce the program in Kentucky, and won the blessing of its primary adversary in the state's legislative battle, Senate Republican Leader Robert Stivers of Manchester. Also on hand at Wheeler's Pharmacy in Lexington was Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear, who had stayed out of the fight until he signed the bill.
Stivers, who is in line to become Senate president, was asked if the drug makers' move signaled a truce in the battle. He indicated that he would wait to see the impact of this year's law, which reduced the amount of pseudoephedrine that can be bought during one a month, before trying to tighten it. "Let's look at the history and see what happens," he said. Earlier, he said: "I appreciate the fact that they're coming here in a very conciliatory way, a very open way, to say we all know there is a problem."
Preventing that is the goal of CHPA's "Anti-Smurfing Campaign," named for the practice of meth makers using others, "smurfs," to buy pseudoephedrine for them. Beshear noted that the new law makes smurfing a felony, and said the posters are "designed to make smurfers think twice" and "think of the moral and criminal consequences of their actions." He told cn|2 Politics, "I think will be a good deterrent in this situation."
CHPA's director of state government affairs, Carlos Gutiérrez, said the posters were tested in 2011 with focus groups of Kentuckians and strike a balance of educating potential smurfers without alarming law-abiding buyers of pseudoephedrine.
In its efforts to kill Stivers' prescription bill during the 2012 legislative session, CHPA spent more than any other lobbying group has ever reported spending on a legislative session, and that did not include hundreds of thousands of dollars it spent on radio commercials urging listeners to lobby legislators about the bill. Lobbies in Kentucky do not have to report what they spend on such indirect lobbying. Guiterrez was asked if CHPA would do that, and he said he would look into it.
- To Fight Meds-for-meth Bill, Consumer Healthcare Products Association Spent Almost $500,000 In Last Session, A Record
The biggest spender to lobby the Kentucky legislature in the 2012 session was the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which represents the over-the-counter drug industry. Of the $8.8 million spent in 2012 overall, the group spent nearly $500,000,...
- Meds-for-meth Bill Drew Record Lobbying Expenses, Not Even Including Radio And Newspaper Ad Campaigns
Makers of over-the-counter drugs spent more than any lobbying interest ever had during a single Kentucky legislative session in their effort to defeat a bill requiring prescriptions for the key ingredient in methamphetamine, Bill Estep reports for the...
- Compromise Meds-for-meth Bill Clears Committee; Third Drug-related Bill To Pass This Week
Update, March 2: Just hours after the committee approved the bill, Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, "declared its future uncertain," reports Jack Brammer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. Stivers said there is "a very successful lobbying...
- Group Fighting Meds-for-meth Bill Says It Spent Nearly $200,000 In January On Lobbying, And That Apparently Omits Radio Buys
The group fighting a bill that would make the key ingredient for making methamphetamine available only by prescription spent more than $194,000 last month alone to lobby lawmakers, far more than any other lobbying interest at the General Assembly. The...
- Senate Committee Narrowly Passes Meds-for-meth Bill As Advocates Start Their Own Radio Advertising Campaign
In the face of a strong lobbying effort by makers of over-the-counter cold medicines, a state Senate committee narrowly approved a bill today that would require a prescription for most products containing pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient used to make...