By Erica Kearns
West Virginia Rite Aid stores are under investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for their sales of cold medications used in manufacturing methamphetamine. The DEA recently requested Rite Aid’s electronic sales records for the past seven years of pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in meth making.
“They asked for historical data. It was a lot of information,” said Mike Goff, a pharmacy board administrator who oversees the state’s controlled-substance monitoring program. “They apparently found some questionable Sudafed sales.”
Rite Aid sold more boxes of pseudoephedrine than any other pharmacy in the state, selling more than 123,500 boxes this year alone. To combat the sales of single ingredient medicines, Rite Aid discontinued sales of Sudafed 12 and 24 Hour medications in November.
There were no figures available on sales of pseudoephedrine for the Clay Rite Aid store.