West Virginia CVS officials have removed particular cold medicines containing the drug pseudoephedrine from stores, after discovering a spike in methamphetamine production.
The pharmaceutical retailer is cracking down on the over-the-counter drugs due to a rise in methamphetamine manufacturing, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Certain medications no longer on CVS store shelves contain pseudoephedrine - an ingredient required to make meth, according to The West Virginia Gazette. Sudafed is a code brand name for the constituent, which is used to distinguish the chemical's strong meth contents. The aggregate is most commonly found in Sudafed 12 Hour, and Sudafed 24 Hour medications.
"We took this step as part of our longstanding commitment to assuring that PSE products are purchased at our stores only for legitimate medical purposes," explained Mike DeAngelis, a CVS spokesman. "By replacing the single-ingredient products that are preferred in the making of meth with a tamper-resistant version in these [90] stores, our customers continue to have access to a single-ingredient pseudoephedrine product for legitimate purposes."
"Substance abuse has ravaged West Virginia, and the local production and abuse of methamphetamine has only added to the epidemic," U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told The Gazette. "It is past time that we take strong action to stop this cycle of abuse."
The legislator reportedly pushed to have CVS remove the cold medicines in quiestion from various locations throughout the southern state.
"CVS' commitment to terminating local sales of single-ingredient pseudoephedrine products will undoubtedly help curb the growth of meth labs and meth abuse," added Manchin.
Law enforcement confiscated 530 meth labs in West Virginia in 2013, according to The Journal. The number has dropped considerably to 207 in 2014.
CVS is also stopping sales of the pills at 40 locations in Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, all of which fall within a 15 mile radius of West Virginia.
