House to vote on new cold medicine sale restrictions

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - The battle against methamphetamine will lead to new restrictions on the sale of cold medicine in Indiana.

Retailers and doctors announced support Monday for a measure that would limit the purchase of pseudoephedrine. That's the cold medicine used in the manufacture of meth. 

The controversial requirement for a prescription has been eliminated from a bill that now limits the amount of pseudoephedrine an individual can buy to an 8 month supply each year. 

"Relatively few are going to be inconvenienced at all," said former state Health Commissioner Richard Feldman, "and so there's a balance and I think this is a perfect balance."

"We also think the prescription-only alternative would punish 99.9 percent of our customers on the retail side who are law abiding citizens," said John Elliott of the Indiana Retail Council, "and really not have a significant impact on that .01 percent, or whatever miniscule percentage, who are the law breakers."

The Indiana House will vote on the cold medicine bill this week.