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 ...
Really? Last night on Intervention, they showed a tweaker sticking it in his arm, his hand, nose...all before having anonymous casual sex. Bizarre. I'd be surprised if he doesn't get AIDS.
Congrats on being clean for almost 20 years...one day at a time.
Thank you.
The hardest drug I have done in 20 years is cappucino. Make the stuff myself from ingredients you can buy at the local grocery store. :0)
Part of the problem is the way some defense attorneys have managed to get their clients off by skirting previous laws. Now, unless some fool has ALL the ingredients on hand in his "meth lab", he can skate...
Food and coffee... I managed to go a whole week without drinking coffee. And you're right, it's as close as the nearest bodega ;-)
Why would you do that?
To get a buzz.
Mark
I am glad that you are off of it.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14235115&BRD=1160&PAG=461&dept_id=190958&rfi=6
http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2005/03/28/news/news19.txt
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=44917
http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2005/03/28/opinion/doc424785aa6ac59239023396.txt
I just did a Google news search, on pseudoephedrine, and later one on pse and ammonia. The above links barely scratch the surface.
Lots of activity in several states and in Canada on the cold pill issue, and a few legislators going after anhydrous ammonia.
Everyone opposed better organize and speak up now, or we are going to have a spate of new laws regulating something many take for granted.
Thank you.
I last did it when I was 25. I am now 45.
It has been a great 20 years.
I can suffer a few sniffles if it saves a few thousand lives.
As a very infrequent drinker, I recommend taking alcohol off the market.
I can "suffer" without an occassional porter or stout if it saves a few thousand lives...
As a citizen who really doen't have any use for guns, I recommend confiscating all privately owned guns.
It's worth it if it saves zillions of lives...
OK, what else would you like to ban?
Mark
Point taken.
Meth sucks. Don't have a good strategery yet....
"I can no longer find SineAid anywhere. It's the only non-prescription med that ever helped my occasional debilitating sinus headaches. I had no idea what had happened to SineAid until I learned it had pseudophedrine in it."
It is so much easier to punish everybody than to ferret out the real criminals. We all pay for the crimes committed by others one way or another. I am so tired of this.
It's always confused me why people do meth. What makes you want to get a buzz so badly, that you're willing to rot your teeth?
We have enough energy drinks, ginseg and b vitamins out there that can give you the energy that meth can give you so why ruin your mouth with that crap?
Our local Safeway doesn't put anything with pse on the shelves. Instead it puts a little card on the shelf that looks like the box cover. You take the card to the counter, and the checkout person goes and gets it for you.
It is annoying. The only stuff that works for me is the sudafed (or a generic) with pseudophedrine hydrochloride and triproladine hydroxide (sp?). That's the stuff that you have to jump through the hoops to get.
One of my half-sisters is wacked out on meth. Any time she goes to my Dad's house, he has to lock up all of his valuables. Anything not locked up, turns up missing. She's a totally worthless individual.
Don't go volunteering me just because you have "occasional" needs.
Some of us suffer far more.
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