Legislation that would require a prescription to buy cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine is now on the table for Tennessee lawmakers to consider.
House Bill 181, which would require that licensed doctors prescribe all medicine containing pseudoephedrine — a main ingredient used to make methamphetamine — was filed in the Tennessee General Assembly late Wednesday.
Rep. David Hawk, R-Greeneville, is sponsoring the bill that local and state police say they are backing.
“As it is right now, [pseudoephedrine] is an open market,” said Hamilton County Sheriff’s Lt. Van Hinton. “A controlled substance would give us the ability to deal with it better, … and it would be tracked better and issued by a licensed doctor.”
In 2010, Tennessee meth lab seizures were at an all-time high, 2,082, according to the Tennessee Meth Task Force.