Two Boxes of Pseudoephedrine and a Teenager with a Driver's License
A man comes to your pharmacy counter at 6 p.m. with two 96-count boxes of 30 mg pseudoephedrine tablets. He also wants a 48-count box of 30 mg tablets "for his wife." Your electronic logbook shows he has already signed for six 96-count boxes at your store and at the pharmacy across town over the past 20 days. His 17-year-old son is with him and offers to sign for one box with his own driver's license so the purchase "won't look so big." The purchaser is pleasant but becomes irritated when you slow down to check the log.
1. How many boxes, if any, may you sell today? Show the arithmetic and the rule you are applying.
Read the worked answer
Zero boxes today.
Arithmetic:
- Each 96-count box of 30 mg tablets = 96 × 30 mg = 2,880 mg = 2.88 g.
- Two boxes today = 5.76 g - above the federal 3.6 g per day limit on retail sales of scheduled listed chemical products.
- Six boxes over the previous 20 days = 17.28 g - far above the federal 9 g per 30-day limit.
Because the 30-day cap has already been exceeded, the daily limit is irrelevant: no further pseudoephedrine may be sold to this person inside the rolling 30-day window. The 48-count box for the wife does not change the analysis - a purchaser cannot multiply the household's allowance by naming another person, and the limits run to the individual who presents identification and signs.
If your system participates in the real-time stop-sale (electronic logbook) network, it should block the transaction; if it does not block, the legal limit still applies and you must refuse. Document the refusal factually.
2. The son, 17, offers his license to sign for one box. May you accept? What must any valid logbook entry contain?
Read the worked answer
No - do not accept the son's offer.
A retail seller may not sell a scheduled listed chemical product to anyone under 18, so the son cannot be the purchaser. Re-routing the purchase to him to evade the 30-day limit is exactly the behavior the logbook exists to detect, and participating in it exposes the pharmacy and the pharmacist.
A compliant logbook entry (paper or electronic) must capture:
- Purchaser's signature;
- Printed name and address;
- Date and time of sale;
- Product name and quantity sold;
- A form of photo identification issued by a government entity, with the ID number recorded.
Records must be retained two years and be available for inspection. The entry must be made by the person actually buying and taking the product.
Given the irritation and the prior purchase pattern, keep the interaction neutral: state the limit, decline the sale, and move on. Do not accuse, and do not sell "one box because he came all the way in" - the 30-day limit is already blown.
3. What should you do with the pattern you have observed, beyond declining this sale?
Read the worked answer
Document and let the system do its job.
- Record the attempted purchase, the reason for refusal, and the quantities involved in the logbook/system so the next pharmacy sees the same pattern; the value of the electronic log is that other sellers are warned.
- Do not confront the purchaser with an accusation of methamphetamine manufacturing; you are enforcing a sales limit, not making a criminal determination.
- Do not destroy or alter logbook records, and do not "void" a prior valid sale to make this one fit.
- If you saw evidence of a false identification or a false logbook entry, note it and consult the pharmacist-in-charge about whether to notify local law enforcement.
- Check that the pharmacy's own self-certification (and any required state registration to sell scheduled listed chemical products) is current - a pharmacy that sells pseudoephedrine without the required self-certification has a separate compliance problem.
The judgment being tested: recognizing that the daily limit and the 30-day limit are separate gates, and that the 30-day gate is the one that closes first here.