A Tulane University faculty member has received a grant to study the possible effects of placing more severe restrictions on an ingredient found in cold and sinus medications.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A Tulane University faculty member has received a grant to study the possible effects of placing more severe restrictions on an ingredient found in cold and sinus medications.
The same ingredient is used to illegally produce methamphetamine.
Keith Finlay, an assistant professor of economics at Tulane, recently won the grant for more than $116,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He'll use it to study whether more restrictions on the ingredient would reduce public health costs associated with meth production and use.
The ingredient is pseudoephedrine (soo' doh EFF' eh dreen). Finlay's research will involve the possible effects of quantity restrictions, electronic tracking or requiring a doctor's prescription for remedies containing the ingredient.