If the governor signs the bill into law, Idaho will become one of a handful of states to allow ivermectin sales without a prescription.
Idaho is set to become the latest state in the United States to allow anti-parasite drug ivermectin to be sold without a prescription after the state Legislature passed a measure.
Senate Bill 1211 was easily approved in the state Legislature on April 4 and delivered that same day to Gov. Brad Little’s desk.
The bill, according to its text, “adds to existing law to provide that ivermectin may be sold or purchased without a prescription or consultation with a health care professional,” meaning it can be sold over the counter.
The bill passed 29–9 in the state Senate and 66–1 in the House.
Little has not publicly commented on whether he will sign the bill or not. The Epoch Times contacted the governor’s office for comment Sunday.
Sen. Tammy Nichols, a Republican, presented the bill on the floor on April 3. “We’re not mandating use, we’re not prescribing treatment, and we are not mandating that it be sold,” Nichols told KTVB-7. “What we’re doing with this bill is simple. We’re removing a barrier.”
A co-sponsor of the bill, Senate President Pro Tempore Kelly Anthon, a Republican, said that the drug has a wide range of applications.
“This is a drug that has had really immeasurable impacts on improving the lives of billions and billions of people throughout the world since it was discovered. It’s been called, in many places, a wonder drug,” Anthon told lawmakers in an Idaho Senate committee in on-camera remarks last week. “It’s been able to serve in treating and in many ways curing human diseases—treating parasites, worms in humans. And in most countries, it is legal over the counter.”
With the legislative action, Idaho became one of several states that have either passed or are considering a bill to deregulate the sale of ivermectin.
Earlier this year, Arkansas allowed the over-the-counter sale of ivermectin after the state Legislature passed a measure, which was signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. In 2022, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, also a Republican, signed a similar measure.
