Johnson & Johnson supports the lobbying that promotes the manufacture of Methamphetamine

According to its 2013 Annual Report, “As a leader in the healthcare industry, Johnson & Johnson is committed to supporting the development of sound public policy in health care.” Yet the company opposes state governments’ efforts to make pseudoephedrine a prescription drug, as it was until 1976. Pseudoephedrine is used to manufacture methamphetamine. Since Oregon and Mississippi removed pseudoephedrine from the over-the-counter category, methamphetamine production in those states has fallen by 96% and 99.5%, respectively.

The other 23 states that have tried to pass similar legislation have been stymied by the efforts of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA), a lobbying and public relations firm. Johnson & Johnson is one of the biggest supporters of this organization.

Drug companies earn about $605 million a year on the sale of pseudoephedrine. The failure properly to regulate these sales costs society much more. A 2009 study by the Rand Corporation concluded that methamphetamine abuse costs the nation between $16 and $48 billion annually. These billions are paid by the public for jails, hospitals, police and foster homes to address the consequences of methamphetamine abuse. Since drug companies that benefit from these sales are not paying for the negative health and social impacts of their product, the public is in this sense subsidizing these drug companies' operations.

As a stockholder, I am appalled that my company chooses to make money from easy access to a drug that leaves children burned and dying, facilitates crime and domestic abuse and leads to ruined health. Mississippi and Oregon have shown that making pseudoephedrine available by prescription only substantially mitigates the terrible consequences of methamphetamine abuse. Johnson & Johnson’s support for efforts to defeat this sensible legislation is not the “love” it advertises; it truly tarnishes the image of Johnson & Johnson.