Government fail(ure)

Seriously, why the hell did we ban pseudoephedrine in New Zealand?  Has it had any impact on the “external costs of P”?

I know it has had a serious impact on me during this years flu season – given that all the alternatives suck.  And I know a lot of people who feel the same.

Dumb policy with a very obvious and high cost and pretty much no benefit.  What is this!  How does this rubbish get passed.

4 replies
  1. Eric Crampton
    Eric Crampton says:

    Has there been any real movement in the price of P? I’d expect not much. See Dobkin and Nicosia from the AER a while back – showed that the biggest P-precursor bust in the States had only very transitory effects. And here. And I think MacDoctor railed against it too.

  2. Matt Nolan
    Matt Nolan says:

    @Eric Crampton

    I don’t have enough experience with the market for P to know what is going on with the price sadly.

    Surely, this winter has illustrated to people how ridiculous the policy was – hopefully we will see some complaints …

  3. Danyl Mclauchlan
    Danyl Mclauchlan says:

    My theory is that it was a precautionary policy: they were cracking down on the importing of pseudoepedrine and they wanted to prevent manufacturers from using pharamcies as an alternative source.

  4. Matt Nolan
    Matt Nolan says:

    @Danyl Mclauchlan

    Interesting – could have been the case.

    Wish we had clear data on the quantity and price of P over time though, it would make it a lot easier to judge the “effectiveness” of any policy.

    Also, I wish I could still get Nurofen to kick this damned flu

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