CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- State Police are pushing for a prescription requirement for certain cold medications as drug manufacturers fight back against the proposal.
Members of the House of Delegates are set to vote Wednesday on a bill (HB2946) that would make West Virginians get a prescription for medications containing pseudoephedrine.
The legislation -- meant to cut down on methamphetamine production -- would affect 15 of more than 100 over-the-counter cold and allergy medicines. A similar bill (SB440) is pending in the state Senate.
Police say the proposal would drastically reduce the number of meth labs in West Virginia. Opponents counter that it would add to health-care costs and inconvenience patients.
Making the products prescription-only has been called the "silver bullet" for reducing the number of meth labs, said Capt. T.D. Bradley, troop commander of the State Police's Bureau of Criminal Investigations.
Bradley was at the state Capitol Tuesday to lobby lawmakers on the issue.
"We're fighting a huge industry," he said of over-the-counter drug manufacturers. "They are putting a lot of money into fighting this."
Kanawha County Sheriff Mike Rutherford and the West Virginia Academy of Family Physicians also support the bills.
The Consumer Healthcare Products Association -- a trade association representing manufacturers of over-the-counter products -- has launched a campaign against the legislation that includes Internet ads, radio spots and automated phone calls urging West Virginians to call their legislators and tell them to oppose the bills.
"We oppose any prescription mandate that would place an unnecessary burden on patients," said CHPA spokeswoman Elizabeth Funderburk. "The manufacturers of these medicines are in the business of making people feel better."
Under the legislation, West Virginians would have to get prescriptions for medicines including Sudafed, Mucinex D, Advil Cold & Sinus, and other brands of cold, allergy and sinus medication.
Fundberburk said the group supports electronic tracking of pseudoephedrine sales to help identify meth producers.
Police in other states have found that between 60 and 80 percent of pseudoephedrine sold in stores is diverted to make meth, Bradley said.
"We definitely feel we're in the same range," he said.
Funderburk called that inaccurate, saying it is based on anecdotes and not research. She said data in states that electronically track pseudoephedrine sales show that "a very small percentage" is diverted.
House Health and Human Resources Chairman Don Perdue, a pharmacist, said he believes drug manufacturers' opposition "has little, if anything, to do with concerns about patients."
"It has everything to do with concerns about profits," the Wayne County Democrat said.
Since 2005, West Virginia has limited how much pseudoephedrine people can buy. That initially helped cut down on meth production, but also led to the practice of "smurfing" -- where people in a ring each buy the legal limit of pseudoephedrine, Bradley said.
Now, the number of West Virginia meth labs is rising, said State Police Lt. M.L. Goff.
The debate comes as West Virginia and other states have lost federal money to clean up meth labs. Last week, State Police learned a federal grant program handled by the Drug Enforcement Administration is ending, Goff said.
West Virginia got nearly $500,000 a year from that program to hire private contractors who specialize in removing hazardous waste from meth labs. The burden to clean up those labs could now fall to the Department of Environmental Protection, he said, but he doubts that department has the manpower to do that.
Oregon and Mississippi both require prescriptions for pseudoephedrine.
In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee last week, Stanford University addiction specialist Keith Humphreys -- who visited lawmakers earlier this legislative session to talk about substance abuse -- wrote that Oregon experienced a 90 percent drop in meth lab incidents since enacting a prescription requirement in 2005.
Mississippi passed similar legislation last year and has since reported a 68 percent drop in meth lab incidents, Humphreys wrote.
Lawmakers in Kentucky also are considering requiring a prescription for pseudoephedrine.
Reach Alison Knezevich at alis...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1240.