Posted on 03/28/2005 11:44:27 AM PST by weekendwarrior
Hands-Off Our Runny Noses By Kerri Houston CNSNews.com Commentary March 28, 2005
Good intentions by politicians have been known to inflict collateral damage on innocent bystanders as legislative overreach often causes problems for taxpayers, consumers or other subgroups of the citizenry.
Responding to a recent increase in methamphetamine use and production, the currently elected would like to legislate criminals out of business by passing laws that place common cold remedies out of the reach of non-criminal consumers.
Legislators, both state and federal, are fishing for the guilty in a sea of the innocent.
Meth is a highly addictive and dangerous substance whose manufacture and use places its addicts and the community in peril, and state and federal law enforcement have ramped up efforts to curtail production by successfully identifying and closing meth labs.
Approximately 80% of meth is produced by "super-labs" predominantly in California and along southern border states. Many are operated by Mexican criminal gangs whose extensive trafficking network supplies super-labs with ingredients needed to "cook" the meth.
But about 20% of meth is produced by small "Mom and Pop" labs found primarily in rural areas. Recipes are easy to find, and ingredients include common household items such as camping fuel, drain cleaner, and pseudophedrine (PSE), a decongestant in over-the-counter cold and allergy remedies. Although local and federal law enforcement and state legislatures have been aggressively targeting meth, federal legislators have now come at the problem with pencils drawn, and drafted the Senate and House Combat Meth Act of 2005.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
I don't have to. I lived it.
No kidding. As SCR posted above, what's to keep folks from stopping at every store in town. Apparently, the meth making business is booming in our relatively rural Alabama area. Almost daily you can find an article on a lab blowing up here or a motel room catching fire there - obviously not rocket scientists.
As an occassional Sudafed user in a Methamphetamine aflicted State (ND), I recommend taking pseudoephedrine off the market.
I can suffer a few sniffles if it saves a few thousand lives.
Glad you're still with us.
Only by the grace of God.
Really.
Thanks.
Oh, pul-eeze!
Yeah, everybody, let's have access to OTC medicines rigidly regulated for all Americans, even though...
Approximately 80% of meth is produced by "super-labs" predominantly in California and along southern border states. Many are operated by Mexican criminal gangs whose extensive trafficking network supplies super-labs with ingredients needed to "cook" the meth.
Instead of just closing the frickin' BORDERS and save billions of dollars to boot!
Same in my small, beautiful county. We are now the meth "kitchen" for the area. Used to be moonshine stills, now it's meth labs.
You sure it wasn't stinkeye or the omnipotent evil-eye?
IMO, by the time they put all that together, the meth is made and out the door. But I can't back that up with facts, and can't know for sure whether it's effective or not.
Speak for yourself. I have no desire to get ear & sinus infections from unnecessary congestion, and I don't particularly care about meth-users' lives, except that they don't end quickly enough for my taste.
I know I work in a drugstore photolab, sometimes I have to ring up regular customers and I have to card them to see if they are over 18 to buy cold products plus there are limits to how much you can buy. I'm the biggest proponent of busting meth labs or any illegal drug production and tossing the bad guys in jail but this is way too far.
Oh, it was definitely a business decision, sorry if what I wrote implied otherwise. It's just that after the business decision was made, hoarding the stuff to get through hay fever season was made more difficult for me by the meth hysteria.
That being said, it was a better drug for me than the newer more expensive stuff. They still have the 4-hour Chlor-Trimeton available, but getting up in the middle of the night every night to take a pill during spring/summer isn't much fun. I'm now using Tavist.
Seeing as how Claritin D is a combination of loratidine and pseudoephedrine, instead of just pseudoephedrine, I'd say you don't have to worry. Especially since pseudoephedrine is available all by itself, without the cooks having to worry about splitting the stuff out.
I can't help it if some criminal drug users are using this to make their dope! Why can't law enforcement find and close down the meth clinics instead of making us suffer?
One idea was to closely look at anyone buying Sudefed. Good grief!
Amen, brotha.
Yeesh, I bought two boxes this week.
Well, first I bought the store brand which worked pretty substandardly. Probably my imagination. Then I went an bought the giant sized box of Allavert.
I am probably on a gov't watch list somewhere.
Sheet, I am probably on a couple governement watch lists, come to think of it.
And now they are all sharing information. This could get ugly (=
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