JEFFERSON CITY — Pharmacists in Missouri will start using electronic logs to record purchases of cold medications that could be used to produce methamphetamine.
Legislation signed Tuesday by Gov. Matt Blunt seeks to allow a real-time tracking for purchases of cold medicines with pseudoephedrine. Pharmacists have been keeping paper records since 2005.
The bill also lets specially trained nurses write prescriptions for some controlled substances, including cough medicines and pain relievers such as Vicodin.
Missouri nurses with advanced training have been able to prescribe some medicines since 1993, but not those deemed controlled substances. According to the state nurses association, only Alabama, Florida and Missouri barred such nurses from prescribing controlled substances.