After decades, FDA moves to pull ineffective decongestant off shelves

Re:After decades, FDA moves to pull ineffective decongestant... by esperent on Friday November 08, 2024 @02:58AM (#42085106)

Here in Vietnam it's completely impossible to get pseudoephedrine at all and I think it's the same in all Asian countries. I even resorted to trying to buy some ephedra tea (Chinese medicinal herb from which ephedrine was first discovered). I ordered a box of tea bags from Shopee.vn and rather amusingly received an envelope with the amount I had paid including shipping in cash and an apology letter saying they could no longer sell this herb and please don't leave a bad review.

However, a few months earlier due to a Google translate mixup where I thought I was ordering peppermint oil, I got 100ml of sassafras oil [0]. It's a precursor to MDMA and at least as restricted as pseudoephedrine.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safrole

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Re:After decades, FDA moves to pull ineffective decongestant... by exe34 on Friday November 08, 2024 @04:50AM (#42085636)

just been banned in the UK. was the only thing that worked on my allergies.

edit: my bad, no it's codeine linctus that was banned, there was talk of making pseudoephedrine prescription only but that hasn't gone through.

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Re:After decades, FDA moves to pull ineffective decongestant... by pj1115 on Friday November 08, 2024 @05:37AM (#42085807)

Pseudoephedrine, banned? That's news to me, I bought some OTC a couple of weeks ago.

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Re:After decades, FDA moves to pull ineffective decongestant... by angry_octet on Friday November 08, 2024 @06:06AM (#42085923)

It's readily available in Thailand and Indonesia. You can get it mixed with paracetamol OTC in Singapore, but almost everything in Singapore requires a prescription (even e.g. throat lozenges) so find a doctor if you're staying for a while. In Malaysia you need a prescription.

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