A crime-fighting bill moving through the California Legislature would force patients to get a doctor's prescription to buy a common remedy for stuffy noses.
The measure by Inglewood state Sen. Rod Wright would make it an infraction or misdemeanor to obtain ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or related drugs without a prescription.
Those are common ingredients in cold medicines, but they're also used to make illegal methamphetamine. Wright says he wants to get them out of drug dealers' hands.
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But Sen. Sam Aanestad, an oral surgeon and Republican from Grass Valley, says prescriptions would boost the cost of a $4 bottle of nose spray to $40 or $50. He would rather limit the amount of medication one person can buy.
A 22-10 vote sent the bill to the Assembly.
