blogs: Rick Redding 

At tomorrow night's Metro Council meeting, a final vote is expected on a resolution aimed at requiring a doctor's prescription for the purchase of any over-the-counter medicine containing pseudophedrine. It's sponsored by Vicki Aubrey Welch, who sees the growing meth problem in the South End and figures there's got to be something she can do to stop it. So logically, cutting off the supply of the main ingredient will do that. But her resolution requires action in the Kentucky legislature (unlikely) and it has substantial opposition from Republicans on the Metro Council. Kevin Kramer, in fact, taped a Hot Button editorial on WAVE-TV this week, voicing his opposition as another government intrusion into people's lives. Doug Hawkins cranked up a new toy, a polling mechanism, and asked his constituents to vote, phrasing the question this way: Should certain over-the-counter drugs be available only by prescription? The poll is running 87 percent against, of course. Welch, I hear, is taping her own Hot Button editorial today supporting the resolution. Kramer is pushing a substitute to Welch's resolution tomorrow that would prevent anyone convicted of a crime from buying the stuff. He calls for bi-partisan support, saying his measure aligns with a bill already in process in the Kentucky Senate. I'm siding with Kramer on this one, because as big as the meth problem is, I don't think depriving cold-and-flu sufferers of their medicine is a way to fix it. And the issue shouldn't be the political football is has become.

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	Ultimaratio1   wed mar 10 2010 at 3:30 pm         ·  Read your opening para again. Any vote in the Metro Council on the resolution will have zero effect on the sale of over the counter medicines, since ONLY, repeat ONLY a vote by the state legislature (as you note, unlikely) AND a signature by the Governor (also unlikely) will have any effect on how those medicines are sold. The phony diatribe by Kramer (I heard it) gave the impression that action forbidding the nonprescription sales would be taken by the Council if people did not call their (Democratic) Council types and tell them to back off. It's an advisory opinion, in effect, like the resolutions the Congress passes on help your neighbor day or such. Hawkins is a screwball nutcake, so I am not surprised at his action, but I would expect better of Kramer. Tempest. Teapot.
	Strawberry Burns   wed mar 10 2010 at 11:04 pm         ·  When will people realize that prohibition doesn't work? They will still find a way to get it and people like me who legitimately need it will have a harder time getting it and it will cost more.
	Ultimaratio1   thu mar 11 2010 at 10:20 pm         ·  You guys got sucked in, as WAVE did, to giving Kramer a platform over a non-issue. The Metro Council has dropped the matter, over which it had no authority in the first place. What next, a hot-button editorial by some GOP candidate on trans-fats? They're trying to poke at those hot non-issues rather than take on the substantive, but difficult and sometimes boring issues like how to deal with transportation in our town, how to improve the schools,and how to make Louisville an attractive town for investment. But no, it's easier to demonize government for interfering with your right to cold medicine. Even when it isn't.
	Rick Redding   fri mar 12 2010 at 8:28 am         ·  No, we didn't get sucked in. We did report on what was a wasteful use of legislative energy on something that, as so often happens in Metro Council, wouldn't have made a difference had it passed anyway. Fortunately, in this case, wiser heads prevailed and Welch withdrew her silly resolution.
	Ultimaratio1   fri mar 12 2010 at 8:49 pm         ·  The only energy wasted was by WAVE and anyone who acted on Kramer's hitting on a hot button. You knew, he knew, and WAVE should have known that the Metro Council had no authority to act on making cold medicines subject to prescriptions. Cooler heads would have simply refused Kramer a platform for his phony outrage and told him to come back when he had a real issue. But then, WAVE's hot-buttons are usually given to rightie nonsense. Alert us when they come up with another non-issue.