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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

(1) I think there's pretty wide agreement that selling Sudafed PE is worse than selling nothing at all, and I'd sort of expect it to be off the shelves sometime soon (it should have been much earlier than this).

(2) "Selling nothing at all" is actually not the policy. Real Sudafed is simply a behind-the-pharmacy-counter drug. You don't need a script to get it (plenty of non-abusable drugs do require scripts, a much higher bar). Real Sudafed is to a first approximation available to everybody.

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> Real Sudafed is to a first approximation available to everybody.

I didn't actually know this, and it's good to know. That said, I'm not certain that most people are aware that it is available without a script. Maybe I'm wrong.

If you walk up to the pharmacy counter at any Walgreens or CVS, literally the first thing you're going to see is a shelf of decongestants.

I can’t speak for your Walgreens or CVS, but at mine you’ll see a shelf full of phenylephrine-based decongestants only, because the pseudoephedrine-based ones are behind the counter and out of sight.

Lots of pharmacies display cards in the regular decongestant section that you can take up to the counter to get the ID-required OTC pills. It adds an annoying step, but they are hardly out of sight.

Not trying to be condescending, but are you sure you're referring to "behind the pharmacy counter (i.e. where the pharmacist stands)" rather than on the regular shelves? That's where it's prominent—although as someone else noted there are often "see the pharmacist for the real stuff" cards on regular shelves too.

Yes.

you need to provide a government ID. so probably not an option available to illegal aliens (in many states).

Not sure if it’s still the case, but a few years ago I was traveling and staying overnight near St Louis, and was shocked to find that it actually required a prescription there, but only in the county that St Louis was in.

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