News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 10, 2004

State of Oklahoma Places
Pseudoephedrine Tablets into Schedule V

Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry and DEA Group Supervisor John Kushnir

JUN 10 -- On April 7, 2004, Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma signed House Bill 2176 into law. This law, also known as the “Trooper Nik Green Act,” is the nation’s first state legislation which places all pseudoephedrine products in (hard) tablet form into Schedule V as a Controlled Dangerous Substance within the state of Oklahoma.

This law was enacted to curb the use of pseudoephedrine in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine. Within the last ten years, seizures of methamphetamine laboratories in Oklahoma have increased 12,000%.

Oklahoma State Trooper Nik Green was killed by an ex-firefighter who was in the process of manufacturing methamphetamine. Since Trooper Green’s death, three additional state troopers also lost their lives in connection with events related to methamphetamine trafficking.

Under this law Pseudoephedrine products in the form of gel capsules, liquid capsules, and/or liquid preparations are exempt.

A pseudoephedrine product in (hard) tablet form may be dispensed by a licensed Oklahoma pharmacist or a licensed Oklahoma pharmacy technician without a prescription to a purchaser (consumer) provided that such dispensing does not exceed nine (9) grams of pseudoephedrine in any thirty (30) day period.

A prescription will be required to allow any person (consumer) to acquire more than nine (9) grams of pseudoephedrine in a thirty (30) day period.

A signature in a record book and an identification card with photo will be required of all persons who purchase, receive, or otherwise acquire pseudoephedrine tablets.

Only licensed pharmacies in Oklahoma will be permitted to dispense, sell, or otherwise distribute pseudoephedrine tablets to these persons.

All business entities other than licensed Oklahoma pharmacies must immediately stop selling and/or distributing all pseudoephedrine tablets. Furthermore, these business entities must remove the pseudoephedrine tablets from their shelves and place them in a secure location. Business entities will be given thirty (30) days to return the product or contact law enforcement to take possession of their remaining inventory to be submitted for destruction.

Efforts are underway to eventually connect all pharmacies to a centralized computer database at the State of Oklahoma’s Bureau of Narcotics (OBN) to track pseudoephedrine sales to ensure that consumers do not exceed the nine grams within thirty days limitation without a prescription. Until then, Oklahoma pharmacies will be given sixty (60) days to secure all pseudoephedrine tablets behind the counter and enact an in-store program for logging pseudoephedrine sales.