Health Canada’s Precursor Control Regulations provide direction on how regulated members are required to sell ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. These regulations establish how these products must be stored, accessed, and sold to ensure appropriate oversight, while maintaining patient access.
- Non-combination ephedrine and/or pseudoephedrine products (i.e., single-entity products) must be sold by a pharmacist (or an individual working under the supervision of a pharmacist).
- These products must be behind the counter at a pharmacy, similar to the storage and some of the sale requirements of Schedule 2 products (not accessible to the public).
- These products do not require additional Schedule 2 product sale requirements, such as an assessment of appropriateness or a documentation of sale on the patient record.
- Combination ephedrine and/or pseudoephedrine products can be sold at the pharmacy in the self-selection area, where a pharmacist is available, at the request of a purchaser or consumer, to discuss the product prior to purchase, similar to the storage and sale requirements of a Schedule 3 product.
- These products need to be treated like a Schedule 3 drug and locked up when the pharmacist is not available.
The regulations limit the sale of these natural health products to only be available from pharmacies. This is achieved by prohibiting the sale of these natural health products (i.e., by wholesalers or other distributors) to retail stores that are not pharmacies.