IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING OVER-THE-COUNTER SALE OF EPHEDRINE, PSEUDOEPHEDRINE, AND NORPSEUDOEPHEDRINE

ELECTRONIC REPORTING

House Bill 1137, passed by the 2011 Texas Legislature, requires all pharmacies that sell over-the-counter medications containing ephedrine and/or pseudoephedrine (PSE) to participate in a statewide, real-time electronic PSE monitoring program.

If your pharmacy is NOT set-up to use the National Precursor Log Exchange (NPLEx), register your pharmacy at:  https:\\nplex.appriss.com

 

STATE LAW

The 2005 Texas Legislature passed a bill that, effective August 1, 2005, requires pharmacies engaged in over-the-counter sales of tablet forms of products containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or norpseudoephedrine must keep those products behind the pharmacy counter or in a locked case within 30 feet and in a direct line of sight from a pharmacy counter staffed by an employee of the pharmacy. The state law does not apply to liquid, liquid capsule, or liquid-gel capsule forms of the products. There are also new record-keeping requirements when selling one of these products. House Bill 1137, effective September 1, 2011, also amended the Health and Safety Code, Chapter 486, resulting in state laws more closely aligned to federal law regarding prerequisites to and restrictions on sales of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and norpseudoephedrine. One such change includes the requirement of a government-issued form of identification in order to purchase these medications. 

Before completing the over-the-counter sale of a product containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or norpseudoephedrine, a pharmacy must require the person making the purchase to:

  • display a driver's license or other form of government-issued identification containing the person's photograph and indicating that the person is 16 years of age or older; and
  • sign for the purchase. 

The pharmacy must make a record of the sale including: 

  • the name, date of birth, and address of the person making the purchase; and
  • type of identification displayed by the purchaser and the identification number; and
  • the date and time of the purchase; and
  • the item and number of grams purchased.

The pharmacy must transmit the record of sale as required by Health and Safety Code Section 486.0141.

A business establishment may not sell to a person who makes over-the-counter purchases of one or more products containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or norpseudoephedrine within any:

  • calendar day, more than 3.6 grams of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, norpseudoephedrine, or a combination of those substances; and
  • 30-day period, more than 9 grams of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, norpseudoephedrine, or a combination of those substances.

FEDERAL LAW

In early 2006, the US Congress passed the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005. This Act is similar to the Texas law, but has some provisions that are more stringent than the Texas law. Because these portions are more stringent, the provisions of the Federal Law supersede the Texas law. Some of the differences are as follows:

Effective April 8, 2006: 

  • Daily sales are limited to 3.6 Grams of the base product; and 
  • Monthly sales are limited to 9 Grams of the base product.
  • Effective September 30, 2006, sales restrictions will apply to all dosage forms of the products, including liquids, liquid capsules, or liquid gel capsules; 
  • Sellers must maintain a logbook, written or electronic, to record sales of products containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or phenylpropanolamine. The seller must enter into the logbook the name of the product, and quantity sold. The customer must write or enter into the logbook their name, address, date, and time of sale. The customer must also sign the logbook. You may not sell the product unless these requirements are met.
  • Sellers, must be "self-certified" before selling these products and must comply with all provisions of the CMEA relating to employee training, product placement, photo identification of customers, sales logbooks, and other procedures listed in the law. DEA has provided detailed training instructions for use in explaining a sellers obligations on its website at www.DEAdiversion.usdoj.gov.

 

More information about the federal law may be found on the Drug Enforcement Administration's Web-site at the following link http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/meth/index.html