Sudafed & Prescription Drugs

Dear Delegate Kump;

 Thank you for the email outlining current legislative thoughts toward more restrictions on pharmaceutical purchases.  Please vote against any pharmaceutical  restrictions on Sudafed or anything else.

 Previously, when we got sick with common wintertime  ailments (cold, flu, bronchitis, coughing, etc.) we could call the family doctor and he would do a phone interview and promptly call in an antibiotic prescription, to be coupled with over the counter recommended pharmaceuticals (i.e. Sudafed).  Then the government thought they knew better what was good for us, so they prohibited prescriptions without an office visit and made the Sudafed and other OTC drugs hard to get and limited.  This destroyed a system that allowed us to quickly eliminate the disease, stay healthy and productive

 Now the procedure is that we call the doctor for an appointment, but he can't see us because there are a limited number of doctors and everybody gets sick at the same time (cold and flu season).  The doctor says go to the emergency room but that is an $ 800 out of pocket expense, so that is not going to happen unless we are dying, or you are on welfare where you never really have to pay the hospital.  Since we can't get antibiotics, the cold goes down into the chest and sets up an infection, so we develop a terrible cough, fever, and feel lousy.  This goes on for two to three weeks, instead of the previous few days.  We also get to stand in line for 20 minutes down at the rite aid because the druggist is very busy and filling out forms to buy Sudafed is not his first priority.  Those that have poor resistance continue to decline until they have to go to the emergency room for hospitalization or they die. 

 Legislatures are doing a magnificent job of taking a wonderful private health care system and pushing it backwards 100+  years.  Now we all sit around and shove warm salt water up our nose to kill infection like the ancient Romans used to do and try to figure out what homeopathic medicine we can take that will work best.  Those that work have to take off or make everybody else in the office sick (which doesn't work well when you are self employed, like my wife is), because you can't eliminate the fever quickly and you're infectious as long as you have one. 

 The elitist legislators that come up with such moron type ideas as restricting pharmaceutical treatment have no common sense and are nothing but a burden to the working class of people.  Unfortunately, they will never come to appreciate our problems because they have enough connections to get themselves and their family medically treated promptly. 

 Anyway, please vote against these Legislative "good idea fairies" and their stupid proposals.

Thanks.

Jim Slough

Berkeley Springs, West Virginia