House Speaker Beth Harwell presides over a floor session in Nashville in this file photo.
Gerald McCormickNASHVILLE – State House Republican leaders say stalled proposals that would require prescriptions for cold medications containing pseudoephedrine could gain momentum in the House as a result of a Vanderbilt University poll showing high public support for the idea to reduce illegal meth production.
“Well, a recent Vanderbilt survey said the public’s attitude to that has certainly changed,” House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, told reporters. “We do know we have a problem with meth in our state. It’s a very serious one.”
The Vanderbilt survey found 65 percent of the 680 registered voters surveyed show support for requiring prescriptions for over-the-counter cold relief medicines like Sudafed, which contain pseudoephedrine. Drug dealers use pseudophedrine to make illegal and highly addictive methamphetamine.
In recent years, the General Assembly has resisted requiring prescriptions for pseudoephedrine-based products, instead passing a pharmaceutical industry-backed law limiting purchases of the products, requiring purchasers to sign for those they do buy and entering the information in a database.
But 18 Tennessee towns and cities said that isn’t good enough and last summer passed local ordinances requiring prescriptions. In a legal opinion issued this month, however, Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper said the local approach is banned under a 2011 state law.