Looked into it. This isn’t what I thought it was. They aren’t looking to ban sudafed where the active ingredient is pseudoephedrine, which is the stuff that actually works that you have to scan your drivers license at the pharmacy counter to buy, it’s the over the counter kind where the active ingredient is phenylephrine which, the FDA unfortunately is right, literally doesn’t work for shit. My wife and I learned this a long time ago. If you can buy it without a drivers license honestly I couldn’t care less if they ban it because I honestly don’t know what it even does. But the good stuff that you need a drivers license to buy apparently isn’t going anywhere so we can probably put our pitchforks down on this particular issue at least.
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Pharmacist here. This is correct.
Pseudoephedrine (Sudafed) does work. Phenylephrine (PE) does not.
The evidence on it has been clear for years. PE is just a poor drug. It doesn't do much as a decongestant, which is what it's marketed for. They only reason they kept it on the market is that it's essentially the only over-the-counter option. Pseudoephedrine (PS) is now behind-the-counter (BTC). Why? Because if you get a whole lot of it together, you can use it as a precursor to make methamphetamine. So, the DEA recommended the change as a part of their vaunted war on drugs. Because some clever rednecks learned some basic chemistry, the rest of us were told we could only get tiny amounts of what worked, if we politely asked permission.
They keep doing this stuff too. Loperamide (Immodium) is a diarrhea medicine that's safe as can be. But some idiots found out that if you buy 400-500 of the things and crush them up into a paste, you could get a weak high out of it. So, the FDA stepped in again to fearlessly protect us from cheap and effective anti-diarrheal medicine. And it's not the only one. Diphenoxylate/atropine (Lomotil) is another highly effective opioid that really doesn't get to the brain in significant amounts. But if you take huge amounts of it, you conceivable could get high, so it's scheduled and you have to get a doctor's prescription for a drug most other countries sell over the counter. And if you live with IBS or similar conditions, you get to suffer with 5-10x higher prices for the privilege of this "protection."
The FDA simply admitting PE is ineffective is a welcome and long overdue step. Nothing nefarious here. This is a good thing.
Thanks for the color. Much appreciated.