/sarcasm is so true. We affectively shutdown Qualudes by making the chemical companies STOP making one chemical. Frontline was on Meth use. Turns out its Effedrin that is the key ingredient. US gov't wanted to do the same thing, but regulate who buys the effedrin from suppliers. The drug companies stepped and lobbied. The drug companies won.
Effedrin = ephedrine
It's pseudoephedrine, and much of the objection to regulation came from ordinary users of this very inexpensive, very effective, long-acting, non-prescription decongestant. I take it every single day and am not interested in having to get a prescription every time I need more. Most of the pseudoephedrine used by meth-makers is purchased off the shelf at drug stores, not in bulk from manufacturers.
Has not history made clear that new drugs will be invented to replace the void left by any that become unavailable? Given that there are a nearly infinite number of mind-altering substances that can be produced, from a nearly infinite range of source products and materials, the only effect of stamping out one will be that another will take its place; there's no particular reason to believe the new product won't be more harmful than the old one.
Yep, I loved that clown crusader talking about it so proudly. Sure, we stopped qualudes, but then we got crack. We haven't quite stomped out crack and then we get Ice and ecstasy, and then crystal meth. All the while, heroin is more plentiful and powerful than ever.
I guess that's what they call blind faith.
Pseudoephedrine is for amateurs. The big meth operations make their own precursors