PITTSBURGH — Over-the-counter medicines are used to battle a cold and make meth. But now one pharmacy is banning certain meds in West Virginia and parts of Pennsylvania.
"You start to hallucinate and see things," said a patient at Gateway Rehab.
That was almost every day for him.
"It's horrible," said the patient.
His long battle with meth began at his local pharmacies.
"There's almost like a sense of guilt and a little bit scared (when buying) because you know what you're doing with it," he explained.
What he was doing was buying as much pseudoephedrine as possible. It's key for making methamphetamine and is the only active ingredient in cold medicines like Sudafed. WPXI can't show the patient's face or use his name, but he had the routine down to a science.
"I would have to get two packs of pseudoephedrine and $50," he said.
The FDA limits how much customers can buy and requires these medications to be kept behind the counter. But the patient says there are ways around the rules.
So CVS says it has a new solution: Stop selling it where meth is a problem.
"It's like if you eliminate wheat, you can't bake bread," explained Neil Capretto, doctor of osteopathic medicine and medical director of Gateway Rehab.
The ban includes the entire state of West Virginia and nine bordering stores in western Pennsylvania. According to West Virginia State Police, meth lab busts went up 85 percent last year. CVS told Channel 11 it is committed to making sure pseudoephedrine isn't abused. Capretto applauds the move.
"If you saw some of the devastation that I see ... this is a positive step," Capretto said.
And Pennsylvania may even take it one step further. Right now, there is a bill in Harrisburg that would electronically track and limit the sales of pseudoephedrine.
But for customers who still need it for colds or allergies, CVS says it will now sell something called Zephrex-D.
"It is pseudoephedrine," explains Monica Skomo, associate professor of pharmacy practice at Duquesne University. "But it's a special formulation, so it's much more difficult for someone to make meth. "
They are all steps police hope will end the problem of illegal meth labs.
The ban applies to single-ingredient pseudoephedrine cold medicines. Medicines that combine pseudoephedrine with other ingredients are still sold.
Rite-Aid and Walgreens have adopted a similar policy in West Virginia.
WPXI
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