Step Away from the Cold Medicine - Government's drug war fuels meth problem

Fox News via Reason ^ | December 21, 2006 | Radley Balko

[conservative cat]

There's nothing I love more than going out at 11:00pm for cold supplies because I can't breathe enought to sleep and not being able to buy Sudafed, because the pharmacy is closed.

[nothingnew]

Last month, President Bush declared Nov. 30 "National Methamphetamine Awareness Day."

Is this a paid holiday or not??

Jeesh

FMCDH(BITS)

[NonValueAdded]

My favorite encounter was expressing my outrage to a Walmart clerk about having to provide picture ID and sign for cold pills but I could go over and buy disposable phones used to trigger IED's without even a second glance from the clerk. In hindsight, I'm lucky I wasn't arrested.

[kinoxi]

National methamphetamine awareness day. That'll fix it.

[Still Thinking]

I vote for National Awareness of Government Drones Fooking with our Civil Liberties Without any Good Reason, uh, Day.

[The Westerner]

Don't worry, the new Sudafed is not made with pseudoepinephrine. Doesn't work as well as the old, either.

[Still Thinking]

I know. The new, improved, ***NOW 54% MORE POLITICALLY CORRECT*** NyQuil sucks as well.

[flashbunny]

not quite. I think we need a blue ribbon committee first to really take care of the problem.

[flashbunny]

I think I have a few pre-ban sudafed left.

[headstamp]

"not quite. I think we need a blue ribbon committee first to really take care of the problem."



Perhaps the Iraq Study Group could tackle this problem as well.......

[Still Thinking]

I got some white ribbon they can have. Doesn't smell real good, but they can have it.

[Still Thinking]

I got some white ribbon they can have. Doesn't smell real good, but they can have it.

[kinoxi]

We need to fund an exploratory committee to determine public awareness of the proposed potential holiday, I think.

:)

[varon]

Is this a paid holiday or not??

It will be as soon as Hallmark comes out with a card ;-)

[Gabz]

The cold medicine laws are absolutely ASSININE.

Thanks to such idiotic feel-good laws I have to waste a bunch of gas when I need sudafed because the local supermarket doesn't have a pharmacy and the nearest one is 15 miles away. IDIOTS.

[microgood]

I cannot believe they arrested 49 store clerks. What possible way could a store clerk benefit from someone buying cold medicine to make into meth? Did the idiot Feds think meth users were planting people in stores so they could sell them their meth materials?

This is entrapment in its purest form. These federal prosecutors should be jailed for stupidity.

[truth_seeker]

"My favorite encounter was expressing my outrage to a Walmart clerk..."

Like the clerk made the rule/law? It is their job to follow rules/laws.

And apparently your job is to "express outrage" with minimum wage clerks.

[MichiganConservative]

These meth laws are all for your own good and for the children. Meth could happen to anybody at any time. You could be walking down the street and blam-o, suddenly you're a meth addict with no teeth. Do you really want this to happen to your kids? Without the laws, it would all be because the government just didn't care enough.

[Othniel]

As someone plagued by colds and allergies since childhood, Pseudophed is one of my best friends. I don't mind the fact that I have to sign a form, or, in the case of Target, have my drivers license scanned. I know how much I need, and that falls well within the accepted parameters of the law. I think it's pretty funny to watch store clerks GO TO THE SAFE and open it, root through all the money, stocks, bonds, and whatnots (shades of Jack Benny) to get my little box of red pills.

I've seen what meth can do to families. Anything I can do to stop some dork from making it is OK with me, and this is very minor. Of course, going out with some friends and dealing with it with some bats would be better....