NYT gift article expires in 30 days.
During a meth epidemic about 20 years ago they made a rule that medicine with pseudoephedrine had to be sold behind lock and key and drivers license scan.
Most cold medicine brands reformulated to use unrestricted phenylephrine. I tried phenylephrine but it was total snake oil and I have continued to submit to government tracking so I can get cold medicine that actually works.
I used to buy that shit at a gas station to help me stay awake on an overnight solo shift. Didn’t always work but it’s weird falling asleep with a heart rate of 100 bpm. It was in appetite suppressants, weightlifting formulas, and of course cold meds, but you could get a bottle of 50 for a few bucks and bypass all the markup for the specific products.
I get it’s to fight meth, and it did lead to a few non-meth deaths being totally unregulated, but having to pay $30 for a 24 pack of Mucinex is fucking highway robbery and people barely even know it.