To fight meds-for-meth bill, Consumer Healthcare Products Association spent almost $500,000 in last session, a record

The biggest spender to lobby the Kentucky legislature in the 2012 session was the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which represents the over-the-counter drug industry. Of the $8.8 million spent in 2012 overall, the group spent nearly $500,000, breaking the record it set in 2010 by spending $311,000.

The group was fighting a bill that would have made cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient to make methamphetamine, available only by prescription. Its report did not include several hundred thousand dollars spent on advertising to the general public, asking citizens to contact legislators. That does not fall under the state’s legal definition of lobbying, which does include other methods CHPA used, such as phone banks, social media and other Internet activities.

The Senate and House ultimately passed a compromise bill that lowers the amount of pseudoephedrine a person can buy in a month from 9 grams to 7.2 grams. The maximum a person can buy in a year without a prescription is 24 grams. For a story from the Lexington Herald-Leader, click here. Gor one from The Courier-Journal, go here.