Source: I've been paying taxes in NY with a learner's permit that's been expired for well over a decade.
Edit: I've also used said expired permit to buy pseudoephedrine. In my experience, they get frustrated and put random garbage into the tracking system when the card doesn't verify, demonstrating that it's all theater. It did take a while, though, so your point about this being a waste of time holds.
In what reality? You were not being paid $60 to grocery shop or whatever else you might have done with that 15 minutes. Nor did it actually reduce your bank account by $60 to wait 15 minutes. If you applied this logic to everything in life, reading this very comment probably "cost" you a dozen bucks too. What a fun way to live?
> Meanwhile, other drugs are just mailed to me, including my prescriptions.
How often are your anticipating needing pseudoephedrine? For most people it's a once a year, at most, thing.
A simple google search before posting would have made your fictitious scenario a little bit more believable.
Technically true but it is often paired with loratadine in, e.g., Claritin-D. Many allergy sufferers also get congested sinuses.
The side affects of prolonged pseudoephedrine use (usually defined as more than 7 days, btw) are far more serious than a stuffy nose.
You cannot even purchase enough pseudoephedrine to use every day over a full month. The government restricts maximum grammage per month - and no doctor is going to prescribe long-term use of pseudoephedrine to "help with allergies".
That is to say I don't believe your story at all. But I get it - googling these things before you posted would have "cost" you approximately $24 or something something something...
If one can treat the symptoms just as easily as the cause and pseudoephedrine doesn't make them feel like a drugged-out zombie, just guess which drug people are going to take...
...and yes, doctors actually will write prescriptions for pseudoephidrine because they're generally pretty sure their patients aren't using it to make meth. I know three people who've gotten such prescriptions, and I've been tempted to do the same thing myself.
No, that's the inflated list price that's only paid by people with an emergency while out of network or similar unfortunates -- not insurance companies.
That phenylephrine (which everyone with sinuses knows doesn't do a damn thing) was perpetually being touted as a substitute was just adding insult to injury.
The prescription line is always fun. I remember some dude coughing on everyone, picking up his cell phone, "oh it was positive? great, I'm in line to get the medication" referring to COVID. In my opinion, the easiest place to get sick is waiting in the prescription line. Yet another tax on congestion sufferers.
Having said all that, your doctor can write you a prescription and all the restrictions go away, including the ID check. It has always delayed my fills even further so we don't bother anymore.
The most positive outcome from buying pseudoephedrine in line was being told "hey, your ID expires tomorrow" which was a good catch. I wasn't paying any attention to that. (I don't drive, so it's just a piece of plastic with my name. But necessary for paying taxes online in NYS.)