Congress Catches Cold In Patriot Act Renewal

http://www.lp.org/ ^ | 3 14 06 | Matthew Dailey

[freepatriot32]

The War on Drugs has now been extended to the counter of your local pharmacy. Buried in the Patriot Act renewal bill that passed this week are provisions that would impose new restrictions on purchasing medicines that contain pseudoephedrine.

Many cold and allergy medications contain the chemical pseudoephedrine which is used to as an ingredient to manufacture methamphetamine.

In typical, heavy-handed fashion, Congress is placing limits on how much medicine containing pseudoephedrine one person can buy during a given time period. The purchase limits would go into effect 30 days after the president signs the bill. A person would be limited to buying 300, 30-mg pills in a month or 120 such pills in a day, USA Today reported.

To further inconvenience buyers of cold medicine, these anti-meth provisions would move the pseudoephedrine products behind the counter and beginning Sept. 30 an ID will be required to buy those products.

There is evidence this misguided government initiative will have little effect in the availability of street methamphetamine. The federal government likes to think they are conducting a major crackdown on meth producers in the United States, but fail to realize that a major portion of America's supply of street methamphetamine comes from "superlabs" located in Mexico.

These Mexican "superlabs", according to Greg Garner from the Cato Institute, smuggle pseudoephedrine in bulk from Mexico and Canada, thereby bypassing pharmacies altogether.

These anti-meth provisions in the Patriot Act renewal bill will make it harder for law-abiding citizens to buy cold medication, while making the national meth problem worse.

Garner explains by saying, "They'll put recreational meth users into more frequent contact with smugglers and traffickers, likely sparking increases in black market violence."

[freepatriot32]

"They'll put recreational meth users into more frequent contact with smugglers and traffickers, likely sparking increases in black market violence."

Call me a cynic but I think that is exactly what they hopeing to do when they passed this! they need more people to die in drug deals gone bad so they can pass more and harsher laws against drugs and have plenty of new material to make those dumbass psa's that are shown every 10 minutes on tv thus giving federal drug and ad agencys more money and power over the american people with fewer constitutional restrictions on thier blatantly unconstitutional activitys

[freepatriot32]

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

[A CA Guy]

If it helps stop the making of illegal drugs, then good.

How much legally would a legit citizen need anyway?

This seems clearly targeted at libertarians or others who want to practice the making of illegal drugs, right?

Glue and spray cans are locked up these days because of abuse as well. The world hasn't ended there either.

[taxesareforever]

Just more of the "punish everyone for the sake of the few".

[freepatriot32]

ping

[1035rep]

"Buried in the Patriot Act renewal bill that passed this week are provisions that would impose new restrictions on purchasing medicines that contain pseudoephedrine."

This has been in effect  for at least 10 years in San Bernardino County CA . You can still  buy 3 boxes at at time.  I'm sure this is not the only county to have this ordinance

[CowboyJay]

The lion's-share of crystal-methamphetamine comes across the border from industrial-scale operations in Mexico.

This bill does nothing but benefit foreign manufacturers and smugglers.

[quietolong]

All un-needed. The manufactures changed the formula to make these unusable to make
meth.

Funny how all these things are coming to light now. What other things are hidden in this
1984 wish list?

Under Patriot Act, Feds Could Bug Boards
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1595865/posts

[1035rep]

If it contains any form of ephedrine it is usable to manufactor meth

[1035rep]

"manufacture"

[DumpsterDiver]

What other things are hidden in this 1984 wish list?

The Patriot Act made it possible for banks to aid illegal aliens with their remittances.

www.fdic.gov - During the past several years, bilateral agreements and U.S. banking laws and regulations have facilitated remittance transfers for immigrants and helped bring the unbanked into the formal banking system.

[snip]

In addition, a growing number of U.S. banks accept alternative forms of identification to help taxpaying immigrants open bank accounts and secure other banking services; these include the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) and foreign government issued identification, such as the Mexican Matricula Consular card. The USA PATRIOT Act allows financial institutions to accept both forms of identification, enabling insured financial institutions to serve unbanked immigrants [aka illegal aliens] who live and work in the United States.

[snip]

[borisbob69]

In Phoenix, AZ my box of Claritin is behind the counter and I have to show ID and sign a list confirming I"m buying it for personal use.

I'm sure my box of 20 capsules is just what every meth lab needs to push dangerous drugs out into the hands of desperate addicts.

Now, if I was buying 20,000 boxes of Claritin then I might be suspect as to the nature of my allergies.

[trebb]

Granted you don't need it in huge quantities, but it's a legal substance that some found a way to use in an illegal fashion, so all are looked at as potential criminals when purchasing it. It's a pain to have to wait in line at the pharmacy counter for an OTC decongestant, and to top it off, they want your driver license so they can keep tabs on how much you buy. This is just one more baby step towards controlling everything about us. Next thing you know, we will have to register steak knives and wait three days for a background check before we can pick them up.

[ActionNewsBill]

These anti-meth provisions in the Patriot Act renewal bill will make it harder for law-abiding citizens to buy cold medication, while making the national meth problem worse.

Is there anyone here who was naive enough to believe that the un-Patriot Act would only be used to go after terrorists?

Maybe the whole idea of this legislative abomination is to define the term "terrorist" in such a way as to make everyone suspect.

[wolfcreek]

You shouldn't take that crap anyway, it's bad for you! Seek more natural ways to control you symptoms.

[robertpaulsen]

"The lion's-share of crystal-methamphetamine comes across the border from industrial-scale operations in Mexico."

It does now. Why? Because the government cracked down on OTC pseudoephedrine.

Look at the positive side -- at least we got rid of the meth labs that were blowing up, polluting the ground, and poisoning children.

[robertpaulsen]

"They'll put recreational meth users into more frequent contact with smugglers and traffickers, likely sparking increases in black market violence."

Whereas before ... what?

[CowboyJay]

"Look at the positive side -- at least we got rid of the meth labs that were blowing up, polluting the ground, and poisoning children."

I'll give you that much. Thank you for pointing it out. It will cut down somewhat on those activities. Closing the border would help greatly with the other societal costs of meth use.

[Liberty Valance]

A person would be limited to buying 300, 30-mg pills in a month or 120 such pills in a day

May be i'm nuts but if a person needs more than that, he or she should be under the care of a doctor who can prescribe any amount necessary.

[TKDietz]

"Look at the positive side -- at least we got rid of the meth labs that were blowing up, polluting the ground, and poisoning children."

Not only that, but in my state where we already have these laws we're getting far fewer meth lab cases to clog up the courts and we're not having to send so many to prison to serve the kind of incredibly long prison sentences people were getting for being involved with meth labs, most of which were only producing relatively tiny batches supplying mostly just those cooking the dope and those that helped them. That saves us a lot of money. It's really working, I can see it in my job as a public defender where I've handled tons of meth lab cases. I think we'll see less addicts being created as well. There were an awful lot of people around here cooking dope before and there would always be several people involved with each lab. Most of the cooks were already addicted, but that wasn't necessarily the case for friends and family members who ended up providing places to cook, helping gather supplies and do the manual labor required in the process. Some were introduced to meth this way, others were in many cases just casual users who never would have been able to afford to buy enough meth to do it often enough to become addicted. The labs were enabling them to do huge amounts of dope on an almost continuous basis virtually ensuring that they would become addicted.

I just wish the feds had not gotten involved. States were already passing these laws on their own. There was no need for this legislation at the federal level. I'd much rather see states pass their own versions of these laws so in the end we could see what works and what doesn't, instead of having more one size fits all federal laws shoved down our throats.