Make Cold Pills Harder To Get, Officials Urge

DesMoines Register ^ | 11/23/2003

[Wolfie]

Cedar Rapids, Ia. - The companies whose over-the-counter medicines are used to make methamphetamine should do more to curb the illegal use of their products, several Iowa law enforcement and health officials say.

Meth "cooks" use pseudoephedrine, a decongestant found in everything from Sudafed to Advil Cold and Sinus, to make the illegal stimulant. Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent Rick LaMere suspects the meth epidemic is good business for makers of those legal drugs.

[TheCrusader]

I just read that trapping mice in your own house is illegal in California without a trapper's license. Now it will be illegal to buy cold tablets at WalMart without a prescription. Soon life itself will be illegal without a license, you will need to renew your yearly 'pulse permit' at city hall or somebody will come by and shoot you.

[Mad Dawgg]

"Soon life itself will be illegal without a license, you will need to renew your yearly 'pulse permit' at city hall or somebody will come by and shoot you."

What really scares me is that now I am fast approaching 50, they will institute a Bathroom permit/tax...

I would go broke in two days...

[Spiff]

I saw something strange in a Texaco station in my small town in Arizona. On the counter in a locked plexiglass case, along with all the expensive potency dietary supplements (snake oil) and herbal stimulants (more snake oil) were boxes and boxes of no-brand Pseudoephedrine pills. The store, like other convenience stores, sells small packages of various over-the-counter medications - mostly name brand stuff. And they have that stuff stocked on shelves in one of the aisles. But these 1000-count boxes were locked up and their packaging only mentioned symptom relief as an afterthought. I guess the store doesn't mind catering to people who run crystal-meth labs.

[eddie willers]

Many people drown.
Ban water.

[Wolfie]

"There are people whose hands are clean who are making millions off these addicts," said LaMere, who is based in Cedar Rapids. "Something needs to change."

Maybe the DEA should seize Johnson & Johnson.

[uncbob]

"If I could snap my fingers, I would say anything with ephedrine isn't sold over the counter," said Charles Hallberg, a Cedar Rapids attorney

Sounds like Joe Leaphorn in Tony Hillerman's lates TV Movie " COYOTE WAITS" wherein he wants to make GIN BOURBON SCOTCH etc dissappear

[TankerKC]

"There are people whose hands are clean who are making millions off these addicts," said LaMere, who is based in Cedar Rapids.

It's not polite to talk about the cops like that.

[vetvetdoug]

Remember that 20 years ago these drugs were prescription. Once one let the genie out of the bottle one can't put it back in.

[Eala]

Soon life itself will be illegal without a license

You're not so very far off the truth here. Licensing Parents is an issue that's been flying below the radar for almost a quarter-century now. (I first learned of it from a ca. 1988 follow-up to the referenced article that didn't talk about whether it was proper to license parents, but rather how to make it public policy.)

[TankerKC]

The Dangers of Dihydrogen Oxide

[thoughtomator]

Yer tag needs a correction =P

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I have an idea!

Let's make all over-the-counter medication available by prescription only, and charge twenty times more for them.

That's how the pharmaceutical industry is supposed to work!

[TankerKC]

I've considered this contingency. What I will do now is ignore your and argue with newer members. Its fail safe.

[Orangedog]

I first learned of it from a ca. 1988 follow-up to the referenced article that didn't talk about whether it was proper to license parents, but rather how to make it public policy

This is very important because once courts consider this as a matter of "public policy" almost all Constitutional protections are GONE! This is what the divorce industry has managed to accomplish with all matters regarding child custody. I've been trying to warn the women who think that the blatant bias in the courts that they have benefited from over the past 30 years will not last forever. And when the tide turns, it won't go back in the favor of fathers, but to the state. I've tried to warn them that the monster they have been cheering on while it was ripping their ex-husbands to shreds will soon turn it's attention to the mothers as soon as all of the infrastructure was in place. Keep a close eye on the expansion of the foster care programs and the money they get per child.

[MamaTexan]

Iowa law enforcement officials estimate that the number of meth labs might be cut in half if

estimate, might, if

I'm SO freakin' sick of this drug war crap!

People have been getting high since the dawn of time, and second guessing how to stop them will never work. NOTHING will.

Maybe I should tell the WODers that you can get wasted by grinding up morning glory seeds and making a tea from them. (It'll give you a high just like LSD.)

And you can buy the seeds just about anywhere!

Why don't they just go ahead and make everything illegal?

No Tv, chocolate, beer, whiskey, drugs, pets, snuggling......

If it's bad for you, could possibly harm you in the near or distant future, or gives you any pleasure whatsoever, it should be declared illegal.

(rant OFF)

[SauronOfMordor]

Tincture of Iodine is no longer available on store shelves here. You have to go to the pharmacist, present ID, and give your name, address, and what you want it for. Seems iodine is also used to make meth. My mom doesn't like this new-fangled Neosporin, and only want iodine to put on scrapes and cuts

[xrp]

I figure it might be easier to outlaw death. That way, anyone who dies from any reason is in violation of the law and an outlaw. When dying is outlawed, only outlaws will be dead.

[Eala]

This is very important because once courts consider this as a matter of "public policy" almost all Constitutional protections are GONE! This is what the divorce industry has managed to accomplish with all matters regarding child custody. I've been trying to warn the women who think that the blatant bias in the courts that they have benefited from over the past 30 years will not last forever. And when the tide turns, it won't go back in the favor of fathers, but to the state. I've tried to warn them that the monster they have been cheering on while it was ripping their ex-husbands to shreds will soon turn it's attention to the mothers as soon as all of the infrastructure was in place. Keep a close eye on the expansion of the foster care programs and the money they get per child.

Exactly!!

[Smokin' Joe]

Others say the companies shouldn't be punished when legitimate products are used illegally. "You're asking about a company that has a product with a useful, legal purpose being used for an illegal purpose, and I'm not sure you can blame them any more than you can blame car companies for accidents," Grassley said.

Let's see...You mean, like suing firearm manufacturers for crimes involving the use of a gun..?

Funny, but if people took the pills and stayed home instead of bringing their germs to work or school, the rest of us wouldn't need cold pills....

Most retailers in ND are urged to report sales of more than two blister packs of cold pills...This can provide some twisted entertainment watching lines of twitchy, skinny, people with very bad teeth at the checkout counter buying cold pills....the 'usual' suspects' passing through.