You must not live in a state where Sudafed is already something that requires you to register with the pharmacist every time you make a purchase. This is already in place throughout the midwest, including Texas, save for a few states.
Sudafed is still the most effective sinus/allergy medicine out there and it feels like you are being singled out for harassment when you have to go to a pharmacy counter and sign forms in order to buy it.
We do still have meth labs around here too, although I can’t tell you if it is higher or lower (the ADDICTS aren’t the ones registering at the pharmacy counters so there’s no apparent tracking).
So, in order to stop people who can’t use a drug responsibly, we punish the people who only want to take a pill so they can stop sneezing and choking on their own snot. How compassionate!
And how idiotic. More government unintended consequences. The meth heads probably already have figured out a work-around while we allergy sufferers are treated to more Big Brother.
We have that law here in Maryland, too. I don’t consider it all that onerous to check in with the clerk when I buy Sudafed. They have my information on file. Anyway, if this is too much trouble, there is another form of Sudafed that doesn’t contain pseudoephedrine and doesn’t require you to get checked or sign anything. Seems to work just as well.
Actually, if anyone lives in any of the United STATES they are affected by the Combat Methanphetamine Act of 2005 which regulates that psuedoephedrine products are sold behind the counter with purchases limited to 3.6 grams per day or 9 grams per month allowed for each customer.
However, as stated in the article, the law had HUGE loopholes. The only way to stop the production of meth is to make psuedoephedrine products available only through prescription again.
And ps... the addicts ARE registering at the pharmacy counter. The current procedure is to buy pseudoephedrine at the pharmacy, then exchange it with your next purchase of meth. Keeps the meth lab wheels turning, so to speak. And outsmarts the Fed.
Yes, the meth head HAVE figured out how to work around the law, and allergy sufferers are treated to more Big Brother.
I love how everyone is fine with a Govt. ban or restriction on something when it doesn’t affect them.
Big enormous taxes raise the price of cigarettes - No problem, they don’t smoke.
Treated like a suspected drug dealer when you buy cold or asthma medicine - No problem, they don’t need or buy those items.
What happens when Big Daddy Govt. regulates something they do use? Maybe Motrin, or Tylenol, or Soda Pop. Their heads will explode.
Even if these ephedrine buying restrictions don’t bother some, the slippery slope of Govt. intrusion into our lives should.
When you give the Govt. wiggle room to treat you like children, they will keep wiggling till they have total control.
Where I live I can buy as much pseudo (and codeine for that matter) as I want. There is no meth problem here, as far as I can tell. Of course, marijuana is virtually legal. Just saying.
1) Get hired at a pharmacy with a fake ID. Work a couple of days and then steal all the Sudafed.
2) Break into a pharmacy at night and steal all the Sudafed.
3) Buy Sudafed from employees who are willing to illegally sell it to you for the extra cash.
4) Go to Mexico and buy Sudafed.
5) Buy it on line
6) Burglarize a regional pharmaceutical warehouse
7) Hijack a truck carrying Sudafed
8) Steal it from a busy hospital either by working temporarily under a false ID, getting it from an employee, or just taking it when no one's looking on a hectic Saturday night when the ER is full of gangland shooting victims.
etc.