Denied the Purchase of Cold & Allergy Medication?
If you have attempted to purchase cold and allergy medications and were unable to do so, please follow the link below to see a summary of your purchase history along with applicable Federal, State and local laws.
NPLEx Answers Site In 2005 Kentucky and dozens of other states passed laws restricting the sale of products containing pseudoephedrine (PSE), the key ingredient for meth production. These laws closely followed similar legislation enacted in Oklahoma in 2004. States that restricted PSE began seeing immediate declines in meth-lab responses. Those declines, however, were short lived, as meth users and cooks began an activity known as ‘smurfing,’ a process of purchasing small amounts of PSE at multiple locations.
The National Precursor Log Exchange (NPLEx) is a real-time electronic logging system used by pharmacies and law enforcement to track sales of over-the-counter (OTC) cold and allergy medications containing precursors to the illegal drug, methamphetamine This system has the ability to alert the pharmacist at the point of sale when an individual is attempting to exceed legal product limits.
In 2012, Senate Bill 3 was passed that further limits the amount of over-the counter allergy and cold medication that may be purchased without a prescription.
How MethCheck / NPLEx helps Kentucky
- Reduces the quantities of allergy or cold medicines containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or phenylpropanolamine that may be purchased without a prescription from 9 grams to 7.2 grams per month.
- Establishes an annual limit of 24 grams of allergy or cold medicine containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or phenylpropanolamine that may be purchased without a prescription, whereas existing law did not specify an annual limit.
- Prohibits individuals under the age of 18 from purchasing any quantity of allergy or cold medicines containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or phenylpropanolamine without a prescription.
- Requires pharmacies to maintain an electronic record-keeping system that will allow the pharmacy to prohibit transactions in excess of the limits established by this bill, and provide the Office of Drug Control with unimpeded access to records for statistical analysis purposes.
- Requires the Office of Drug Control to submit annual statistical reports on the sale of compounds, mixtures, or preparations containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or phenylpropanolamine to the Legislative Research Commission.
- Prohibits individuals convicted of any offense relating to methamphetamine from possessing or attempting to possess medication containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or phenylpropanolamine until 5 years after the following dates:
- The date the individual was convicted;
- The date the individual was discharged from incarceration; or
- The date the individual was released from probation or parole.
Other states that have adopted pseudoephedrine tracking
Kentucky law enforcement agencies requesting an NPLEx account can do so by contacting Heather Wainscott at (502) 564-8277 or email heather.wainscott@ky.gov