Sunday, July 17, 2011

Indiana law will track users of some cold medicines in real time

Oh how it starts out so well-intentioned. Nothing like a database of purchasers. Here is part of the operative sentence “stores some personal information about buyers”. Some? I would have to subscribe to the paper for the full story, but let’s just say, I have the gist of it. Indiana, I thought you had better sense. There will be others after you, that may not be so well-intentioned and use the database you set up for ugly purposes.

Pharmacists and police are gearing up to implement a new Indiana law that will better help them identify and track methamphetamine makers and dealers.

Beginning Jan. 1, retailers selling ephedrine and pseudoephedrine must use an electronic system that tracks drug sales in real time and stores some personal information about buyers.

The National Precursor Log Exchange, or NPLE, will issue “stop-sale” alerts to pharmacists if buyers try to purchase more than the allowable limit within a 30-day period. The limit has been reduced to 7.2 grams — or about 240 cold pills — from 9 grams. The one-day limit remains 3.6 grams.

Currently, police have to review hundreds of pages from log books from pharmacies to determine who is buying more than is legally allowed. From The Republic

No comments: