6 ms·

I found out recently that you don't just need a decent government ID; it needs to be from the state you're purchasing the Sudafed from, because apparently each

by hansvm 2y ago

I found out recently that you don't just need a decent government ID; it needs to be from the state you're purchasing the Sudafed from, because apparently each state administers its own database. If you run out and have a persistent cough (weakened immune system from not licking doorknobs the last few years of covid, or so do the doctor says) from a common cold while on vacation, you're shit out of luck unless you go back home or you and an accomplice are willing to procure your cough medicine with their license.

randrus 2y ago
Seems like it varies by state - I’ve purchased Sudafed in at least two states other than my own.
- numbsafari 2y ago
  Same here.
  - schmidtleonard 2y ago
    Me too.
Gibbon1 2y ago
My WAT. Refused sale of Sudafed because my license was expired. Apparently I accidentally tossed my new license and kept the old one. Doh! However they happily refilled my schedule III meds with the expired license. As I said WAT.
nfw2 2y ago
[flagged]
- EdwardDiego 2y ago
  Adderall is a 3:1 dextroamphetamine/levoamphetamine mix. Methamphetamine is a whole other level of stimulant. > amphetamine habits in kids that have trouble focusing in school. 1) Do you have evidence that Adderall at therapeutic dosages is anywhere near as addictive as methamphetamine at recreational dosages? 2) Yeah, ADHD makes it real hard to focus at school. I never graduated from high school, and I dropped out of university as an adult student without even completing one year, thanks to untreated ADHD. Not to mention the impulsive behaviour, the inability to stick at boring things etc. etc. It's not great in our society. You're implicitly minimising the very real impact of ADHD, that's not super great. In fact, one of the biggest issues for people finally being treated for ADHD as adults is the grieving process around "What my life could've been if my parents hadn't believed that ADHD wasn't real and my issues in school and my 'disruptiveness' was solely due to 'food intolerances', because my Mom read a magazine article about it once, then paid a quack to stick a probe in my ear, one on my finger, and then rub food on my skin while looking at a galvanometer making 'hmmm' noises sagely." 3) You know there's been Adderall shortages in the USA recently due to DEA manufacturing limitations right? So it's not like they're just throwing out to kids like it's a lolly scramble. Anyway, it's about as ironic as 10,000 spoons when all you need a knife. That is, not at all.
  - NBJack 2y ago
    I think the parent post is more likely alluding to the abuse of the medication, particularly in higher learning institutions. https://psych.wisc.edu/news/easy-access-pressure-on-students-contributes-to-increase-in-non-prescribed-adderall-use/#:~:text=The%20rise%20in%20illegal%20Adderall,keep%20up%20with%20their%20peers https://psych.wisc.edu/news/easy-access-pressure-on-students.... Aderrall is a Schedule II drug. This is the same category as oxycodone and fentanyl. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/adderall-addiction/adhd-and-adderall/ https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/adderall-addiction/adhd-a...
    - EdwardDiego 2y ago
      ~~Pharmacists have no ability* to not dispense medicines if a doctor prescribes them.~~ _Edit: I am told I'm wrong on this front, and I stand corrected_ The fact that doctors are prescribing them too freely is definitely worth looking into. But severely restricting medication that is used to effectively treat disease because it has abuse potential only harms legitimate users. But definitely worth auditing prescriptions to ensure that they're being issued for valid diagnoses. But as for illegitimate users? You ban it, they'll find something else. And as someone who needs ADHD meds to do things like "remember I have a todo list, remember where I left it, and remember to use it", I very much resent the people who abuse the meds I need to function in our society to pass their law degrees easier. I resent the meth addicts who try to get an ADHD diagnosis for their kids so they can abuse (or sell...) their children's ADHD meds when they can't afford meth, because it means I have to pee into a jar every three months to prove I'm not a meth addict who is abusing methylphenidate. (My country uses methylphenidate / Ritalin / Concerta (the slow release form) as the first treatment for ADHD, Adderall is not prescribed here that much, if ever, but it is possible to be prescribed dexamphetamine if you're bad enough). But I really do object to glibly implying that every child who is prescribed a treatment for ADHD is actually a case of pharmacists gleefully overmedicating, it's naïve, unsympathetic, and, tbh, rather unfair to pharmacists. As for what schedule a drug is... ...is the harm of Adderall abuse the same as the harm of fentanyl abuse? Drug schedules aren't a good way to determine harm, IMO. They're a good way to discern moral panics though. E.g., in my country, Class A, the drugs that attract the highest penalties, include magic mushrooms, mescaline, DMT, and that one you get from licking toads, bufotentine or something, alongside classics like heroin and cocaine. Fentanyl is Class B, alongside opium, morphine, amphetamine, methylphenidate, MDMA, and one that always amuses me, hashish. * There's probably some dumb-ass rules around declining to dispense abortifacients because of religious beliefs, I'm sure.
- whythre 2y ago
  I don’t know why you are being downvoted, adhd medication is insanely overprescribed. Turns out, kids get antsy and hard to control after cramming them into overcrowded rooms for 8-9 hours a day doing slop work. Some schools are now forgoing any form of recess at all. Modern public education is inhuman and dystopian.
  - epistasis 2y ago
    It is absolutely not the job of a pharmacist to make decisions about which drugs are being overprescribed, and IMHO it's a dangerous thing to suggest. The pharmacist should assess for drug interactions, but we can't burden pharmacists with knowing the details that went into a prescription, and we shouldn't have them second guessing the diagnosis of a doctor. Down that road lies madness.
    - culi 2y ago
      I get where you're coming from but pharmacists have the right to refuse to fill a prescription and in fact can be held liable for not doing so. Pharmacists are trained medical professionals and are expected to use their judgement
      - _moof 2y ago
        Judgment based on what? The five-second interaction we have while they're doing twenty other things thirty feet away?
        TeMPOraL 2y ago
        Another thing is, do you get an actual trained and knowledgeable pharmacist, or a technician? In Poland, pharmacies are required by law to have a MSc in pharmacy present during operating hours - that is, no less than one pharmacist with a Masters degree. One is enough. Which means that's all you get. You may not even see them unless you're buying ADHD meds, which need MSc to sign off on them. Otherwise, you're almost always dealing with a pharmacy technician. Some are pretty knowledgeable[0], others could be replaced by GPT-3.5[1] with net benefit to the customer. The latter type, if they're going to notice anything about you, it's whether you're likely to buy some useless supplement or homeopathic product. -- [0] - Probably on their way to MSc in Pharmacy, which is a mistake if they're looking for a pharmacy job - pharmacies don't want people with MSc, there's enough of them around already; they want the cheap technician labor. [1] - Yes, not even 4.
- _moof 2y ago
  Oh good, another round of "ADHD isn't real."
  - arcticbull 2y ago
    The more interesting take for me is that these meds work roughly the same way and almost as well in people without ADHD (a symptom cluster, not a single disease per se, like everything else in the DSM). As we give them to people with ADHD why not let anyone get a scrip?
    - Llamamoe 2y ago
      People without ADHD already get more than enough benefit from just coffee. Stimulants might be able to benefit them further, but if you let anyone take them, eventually it'd become expected of everyone due to their increased productivity, and the potential consequences of abuse are much higher than coffee.
      - arcticbull 2y ago
        Chronic use of caffeine blunts the effects, it doesn't do much to regular drinkers. You develop tolerance very quickly. I can drink several cups and get basically no effect. Apparently your body just increases the quantity of adenosine receptors in the brain to offset the caffeine.
    - atemerev 2y ago
      Well, I yet to see someone without ADHD who becomes calmer and slows down after taking stimulants.
  - nfw2 2y ago
    I didn't say it's not real. A doctor prescribed me Adderall at 18 after talking to me for 5 minutes because I was having trouble sleeping. It did more harm than good. Something can have therapeutic uses and still be over-prescribed.
pdonis 2y ago
> you don't just need a decent government ID; it needs to be from the state you're purchasing the Sudafed from The FDA rule on this [1] doesn't appear to be quite that strict: it says the ID can be "a photo identification card issued by the State or the Federal Government or a document that is considered acceptable by the seller". It doesn't explicitly say it has to be from the same state as the one in which you are buying the medication, and it leaves the seller some latitude in what to accept. Possibly some states have more restrictive rules. Or particular sellers might be more leery about what they are willing to accept. [1] https://www.fda.gov/drugs/information-drug-class/legal-requirements-sale-and-purchase-drug-products-containing-pseudoephedrine-ephedrine-and https://www.fda.gov/drugs/information-drug-class/legal-requi...
- _moof 2y ago
  The FDA rule doesn't restrict the IDs but the phrase "that is considered acceptable by the seller" lets the pharmacy put any restrictions in place they want. They can tell you it has to be hot pink and glow-in-the-dark and you've got no choice but to deal with it.
  - arcticbull 2y ago
    While true as long as they're in compliance with the law, wouldn't they want to sell all the Sudafed they can? They can deny service to anyone for pretty much any reason. No shirt, no shoes, no Sudafed or anything else. So yeah, but in reality it isn't aligned with their interests and if they don't want to serve you they can always find a different justification.
    - safety1st 2y ago
      Maybe they want that, maybe they don't. Retail drug stores in the US are an oligopoly, that industry may not be a monopoly (yet) but they don't function under perfect competition. Maybe if you're the management or the shareholders of a retail drug chain you're just kind of shrugging your shoulders and working on the next merger at this point since the fewer competitors you have, the less hard you have to work for the customer's dollar.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
seattle_spring 2y ago
That's not universally applicable, as I've purchased it in Washington plenty of times with an Oregon ID.
bigfatkitten 2y ago
I've purchased Sudafed in Nevada with a foreign drivers' license with no issues.
esperent 2y ago
Here in Vietnam it's completely impossible to get pseudoephedrine at all and I think it's the same in all Asian countries. I even resorted to trying to buy some ephedra tea (Chinese medicinal herb from which ephedrine was first discovered). I ordered a box of tea bags from Shopee.vn and rather amusingly received an envelope with the amount I had paid including shipping in cash and an apology letter saying they could no longer sell this herb and please don't leave a bad review. However, a few months earlier due to a Google translate mixup where I thought I was ordering peppermint oil, I got 100ml of sassafras oil [0]. It's a precursor to MDMA and at least as restricted as pseudoephedrine. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safrole https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safrole
- exe34 2y ago
  just been banned in the UK. was the only thing that worked on my allergies. edit: my bad, no it's codeine linctus that was banned, there was talk of making pseudoephedrine prescription only but that hasn't gone through.
  - pj1115 2y ago
    Pseudoephedrine, banned? That's news to me, I bought some OTC a couple of weeks ago.
- angry_octet 2y ago
  It's readily available in Thailand and Indonesia. You can get it mixed with paracetamol OTC in Singapore, but almost everything in Singapore requires a prescription (even e.g. throat lozenges) so find a doctor if you're staying for a while. In Malaysia you need a prescription.
cowsandmilk 2y ago
I’ve definitely purchased Sudafed in Seattle with a Virginia Drivers License.
Pxtl 2y ago
Once again, big thanks to paranoid "mark of the beast" conspiracy theorists with funny ideas about federal government IDs and digital IDs. We have the technology. "Behind the counter" could just mean a vending machine with good ID tech instead of queuing up for an overworked pharmacist behind a dozen people.

by hansvm 2y ago

randrus 2y ago

Seems like it varies by state - I’ve purchased Sudafed in at least two states other than my own.

numbsafari 2y ago
Same here.
- schmidtleonard 2y ago
  Me too.

Gibbon1 2y ago

My WAT. Refused sale of Sudafed because my license was expired. Apparently I accidentally tossed my new license and kept the old one. Doh! However they happily refilled my schedule III meds with the expired license. As I said WAT.

nfw2 2y ago

[flagged]

EdwardDiego 2y ago
Adderall is a 3:1 dextroamphetamine/levoamphetamine mix. Methamphetamine is a whole other level of stimulant. > amphetamine habits in kids that have trouble focusing in school. 1) Do you have evidence that Adderall at therapeutic dosages is anywhere near as addictive as methamphetamine at recreational dosages? 2) Yeah, ADHD makes it real hard to focus at school. I never graduated from high school, and I dropped out of university as an adult student without even completing one year, thanks to untreated ADHD. Not to mention the impulsive behaviour, the inability to stick at boring things etc. etc. It's not great in our society. You're implicitly minimising the very real impact of ADHD, that's not super great. In fact, one of the biggest issues for people finally being treated for ADHD as adults is the grieving process around "What my life could've been if my parents hadn't believed that ADHD wasn't real and my issues in school and my 'disruptiveness' was solely due to 'food intolerances', because my Mom read a magazine article about it once, then paid a quack to stick a probe in my ear, one on my finger, and then rub food on my skin while looking at a galvanometer making 'hmmm' noises sagely." 3) You know there's been Adderall shortages in the USA recently due to DEA manufacturing limitations right? So it's not like they're just throwing out to kids like it's a lolly scramble. Anyway, it's about as ironic as 10,000 spoons when all you need a knife. That is, not at all.
- NBJack 2y ago
  I think the parent post is more likely alluding to the abuse of the medication, particularly in higher learning institutions. https://psych.wisc.edu/news/easy-access-pressure-on-students-contributes-to-increase-in-non-prescribed-adderall-use/#:~:text=The%20rise%20in%20illegal%20Adderall,keep%20up%20with%20their%20peers https://psych.wisc.edu/news/easy-access-pressure-on-students.... Aderrall is a Schedule II drug. This is the same category as oxycodone and fentanyl. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/adderall-addiction/adhd-and-adderall/ https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/adderall-addiction/adhd-a...
  - EdwardDiego 2y ago
    ~~Pharmacists have no ability* to not dispense medicines if a doctor prescribes them.~~ _Edit: I am told I'm wrong on this front, and I stand corrected_ The fact that doctors are prescribing them too freely is definitely worth looking into. But severely restricting medication that is used to effectively treat disease because it has abuse potential only harms legitimate users. But definitely worth auditing prescriptions to ensure that they're being issued for valid diagnoses. But as for illegitimate users? You ban it, they'll find something else. And as someone who needs ADHD meds to do things like "remember I have a todo list, remember where I left it, and remember to use it", I very much resent the people who abuse the meds I need to function in our society to pass their law degrees easier. I resent the meth addicts who try to get an ADHD diagnosis for their kids so they can abuse (or sell...) their children's ADHD meds when they can't afford meth, because it means I have to pee into a jar every three months to prove I'm not a meth addict who is abusing methylphenidate. (My country uses methylphenidate / Ritalin / Concerta (the slow release form) as the first treatment for ADHD, Adderall is not prescribed here that much, if ever, but it is possible to be prescribed dexamphetamine if you're bad enough). But I really do object to glibly implying that every child who is prescribed a treatment for ADHD is actually a case of pharmacists gleefully overmedicating, it's naïve, unsympathetic, and, tbh, rather unfair to pharmacists. As for what schedule a drug is... ...is the harm of Adderall abuse the same as the harm of fentanyl abuse? Drug schedules aren't a good way to determine harm, IMO. They're a good way to discern moral panics though. E.g., in my country, Class A, the drugs that attract the highest penalties, include magic mushrooms, mescaline, DMT, and that one you get from licking toads, bufotentine or something, alongside classics like heroin and cocaine. Fentanyl is Class B, alongside opium, morphine, amphetamine, methylphenidate, MDMA, and one that always amuses me, hashish. * There's probably some dumb-ass rules around declining to dispense abortifacients because of religious beliefs, I'm sure.
whythre 2y ago
I don’t know why you are being downvoted, adhd medication is insanely overprescribed. Turns out, kids get antsy and hard to control after cramming them into overcrowded rooms for 8-9 hours a day doing slop work. Some schools are now forgoing any form of recess at all. Modern public education is inhuman and dystopian.
- epistasis 2y ago
  It is absolutely not the job of a pharmacist to make decisions about which drugs are being overprescribed, and IMHO it's a dangerous thing to suggest. The pharmacist should assess for drug interactions, but we can't burden pharmacists with knowing the details that went into a prescription, and we shouldn't have them second guessing the diagnosis of a doctor. Down that road lies madness.
  - culi 2y ago
    I get where you're coming from but pharmacists have the right to refuse to fill a prescription and in fact can be held liable for not doing so. Pharmacists are trained medical professionals and are expected to use their judgement
    - _moof 2y ago
      Judgment based on what? The five-second interaction we have while they're doing twenty other things thirty feet away?
      - TeMPOraL 2y ago
        Another thing is, do you get an actual trained and knowledgeable pharmacist, or a technician? In Poland, pharmacies are required by law to have a MSc in pharmacy present during operating hours - that is, no less than one pharmacist with a Masters degree. One is enough. Which means that's all you get. You may not even see them unless you're buying ADHD meds, which need MSc to sign off on them. Otherwise, you're almost always dealing with a pharmacy technician. Some are pretty knowledgeable[0], others could be replaced by GPT-3.5[1] with net benefit to the customer. The latter type, if they're going to notice anything about you, it's whether you're likely to buy some useless supplement or homeopathic product. -- [0] - Probably on their way to MSc in Pharmacy, which is a mistake if they're looking for a pharmacy job - pharmacies don't want people with MSc, there's enough of them around already; they want the cheap technician labor. [1] - Yes, not even 4.
_moof 2y ago
Oh good, another round of "ADHD isn't real."
- arcticbull 2y ago
  The more interesting take for me is that these meds work roughly the same way and almost as well in people without ADHD (a symptom cluster, not a single disease per se, like everything else in the DSM). As we give them to people with ADHD why not let anyone get a scrip?
  - Llamamoe 2y ago
    People without ADHD already get more than enough benefit from just coffee. Stimulants might be able to benefit them further, but if you let anyone take them, eventually it'd become expected of everyone due to their increased productivity, and the potential consequences of abuse are much higher than coffee.
    - arcticbull 2y ago
      Chronic use of caffeine blunts the effects, it doesn't do much to regular drinkers. You develop tolerance very quickly. I can drink several cups and get basically no effect. Apparently your body just increases the quantity of adenosine receptors in the brain to offset the caffeine.
  - atemerev 2y ago
    Well, I yet to see someone without ADHD who becomes calmer and slows down after taking stimulants.
- nfw2 2y ago
  I didn't say it's not real. A doctor prescribed me Adderall at 18 after talking to me for 5 minutes because I was having trouble sleeping. It did more harm than good. Something can have therapeutic uses and still be over-prescribed.

pdonis 2y ago

> you don't just need a decent government ID; it needs to be from the state you're purchasing the Sudafed from The FDA rule on this [1] doesn't appear to be quite that strict: it says the ID can be "a photo identification card issued by the State or the Federal Government or a document that is considered acceptable by the seller". It doesn't explicitly say it has to be from the same state as the one in which you are buying the medication, and it leaves the seller some latitude in what to accept. Possibly some states have more restrictive rules. Or particular sellers might be more leery about what they are willing to accept. [1] https://www.fda.gov/drugs/information-drug-class/legal-requirements-sale-and-purchase-drug-products-containing-pseudoephedrine-ephedrine-and https://www.fda.gov/drugs/information-drug-class/legal-requi...

_moof 2y ago
The FDA rule doesn't restrict the IDs but the phrase "that is considered acceptable by the seller" lets the pharmacy put any restrictions in place they want. They can tell you it has to be hot pink and glow-in-the-dark and you've got no choice but to deal with it.
- arcticbull 2y ago
  While true as long as they're in compliance with the law, wouldn't they want to sell all the Sudafed they can? They can deny service to anyone for pretty much any reason. No shirt, no shoes, no Sudafed or anything else. So yeah, but in reality it isn't aligned with their interests and if they don't want to serve you they can always find a different justification.
  - safety1st 2y ago
    Maybe they want that, maybe they don't. Retail drug stores in the US are an oligopoly, that industry may not be a monopoly (yet) but they don't function under perfect competition. Maybe if you're the management or the shareholders of a retail drug chain you're just kind of shrugging your shoulders and working on the next merger at this point since the fewer competitors you have, the less hard you have to work for the customer's dollar.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

seattle_spring 2y ago

That's not universally applicable, as I've purchased it in Washington plenty of times with an Oregon ID.

bigfatkitten 2y ago

I've purchased Sudafed in Nevada with a foreign drivers' license with no issues.

esperent 2y ago

Here in Vietnam it's completely impossible to get pseudoephedrine at all and I think it's the same in all Asian countries. I even resorted to trying to buy some ephedra tea (Chinese medicinal herb from which ephedrine was first discovered). I ordered a box of tea bags from Shopee.vn and rather amusingly received an envelope with the amount I had paid including shipping in cash and an apology letter saying they could no longer sell this herb and please don't leave a bad review. However, a few months earlier due to a Google translate mixup where I thought I was ordering peppermint oil, I got 100ml of sassafras oil [0]. It's a precursor to MDMA and at least as restricted as pseudoephedrine. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safrole https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safrole

exe34 2y ago
just been banned in the UK. was the only thing that worked on my allergies. edit: my bad, no it's codeine linctus that was banned, there was talk of making pseudoephedrine prescription only but that hasn't gone through.
- pj1115 2y ago
  Pseudoephedrine, banned? That's news to me, I bought some OTC a couple of weeks ago.
angry_octet 2y ago
It's readily available in Thailand and Indonesia. You can get it mixed with paracetamol OTC in Singapore, but almost everything in Singapore requires a prescription (even e.g. throat lozenges) so find a doctor if you're staying for a while. In Malaysia you need a prescription.

cowsandmilk 2y ago

I’ve definitely purchased Sudafed in Seattle with a Virginia Drivers License.

Pxtl 2y ago

Once again, big thanks to paranoid "mark of the beast" conspiracy theorists with funny ideas about federal government IDs and digital IDs. We have the technology. "Behind the counter" could just mean a vending machine with good ID tech instead of queuing up for an overworked pharmacist behind a dozen people.