Posted on 04/19/2011 7:16:23 AM PDT by Kaslin
You know the war on drugs has gone too far when politicians keep ratcheting up restrictions on cold and allergy medications in order to prevent kitchen drug labs from buying pills and converting them into methamphetamine.
In 2005, Congress passed a law requiring consumers to show a driver's license or other ID in order to purchase Sudafed and 14 other over-the-counter cold and allergy medications. The buyer must register in a logbook.
Right after the law passed, the amount of methamphetamine that the Drug Enforcement Administration seized dropped, but then it started to rise. The drug trade has proved to be a crafty, adaptable foe. "Mom and pop" meth labs started "smurfing" -- sending people to multiple retailers to buy pills.
Also, users figured out how to "shake and bake" small quantities of meth in 2-liter jugs. Toxic meth labs found a new home -- in cars.
Worse, Mexican cartels moved in to fill the vacuum. A 2010 U.N. drug report said there had been a sharp decline in the number of small and medium-sized meth labs in the United States, "although production loss was offset by increasing large-scale manufacture in neighboring Mexico."
The report tracked changes in the street price of methamphetamine. Prices spiked for six to nine months after changes in the law, then "manufacturers were able to retool operations and find new sources of chemicals" and the prices dropped back to where they had been.
Enter state lawmakers. Oregon and Mississippi have already passed laws requiring law-abiding citizens to get prescriptions for what had been over-the-counter medications. Lawmakers in other states -- including California, Alabama and Colorado -- are considering similar bills.
I understand that methamphetamine addiction is an ugly creature that destroys families, eats through bodies and endangers children. But if the pharmacy registry and 250-pill per month quantity limit mainly served to drive the trade to Mexico, then the prescription requirement will not stop the trade either.
Meanwhile, it surely would drive up health costs by making other people -- law-abiding people -- see a doctor when they have a bad cold.
I remember talking to the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein in 2005 before the Combat Methamphetamine Act, which she co-sponsored, passed. A spokesman assured me, "Companies sell cold medications in Europe without pseudoephedrine, and the same could be true here."
What happened is: A lot of people -- like me -- with colds and allergies started to wonder why the stuff they were buying didn't work as well as it used to. Many don't know they can get something that works better if they show the pharmacist their driver's license.
The Consumer Healthcare Products Association warned that if half of Americans who use pseudoephedrine drugs had to visit a doctor to get a prescription, it would cost $750 million per year. Meth addicts won't be burdened by any new laws. It's the law-abiding people who will pay.
Ethan Nadelmann, founder of the anti-drug war Drug Policy Alliance, asked, "Who suffers?"
I'll answer. Factor in the unnecessary health care costs, the long-term effects on supply and price, and the answer is: not meth addicts.
And Odummycare now disallows FSA purchases of OTC drugs.
That's f***** up.
This is a sore spot with me. I’ve had to take a decongestant every day this week because of hay fever and the threat of sinus migraines. That stuff on the shelves is garbage, worth less than the package that holds it.
If our legislature attempts to push a requirement for a prescription, they are going to get a huge, noisy earful from me.
Under Obamacare...if we can get prescriptions for future infections at all, we'll be taking the equivalent of penicillan and amoxicillan...the kinds of antibiotics one must take for 10 days' worth of treatment.
At least most people are able to buy cold medicine when they show a photo ID. Here in Oregon we have to get a doctor’s prescription for “the good stuff” (that other stuff doesn’t work nearly as well). I get several colds a year and I can’t afford to go to the doctor every time I get the sniffles. What’s sad is that I’ve resorted to begging family members to swing by Wal-Mart and get me some Sudafed whenever they are out of state. It’s an unnecessary, draconian law.
This crap MUST stop. The Government did this to control us, not to make us any safer.
My last cold was pretty nasty and my mom told me to try Mucinex. When I went to the store to get it, I could only find the stuff for coughs. I tried looking for the kind for cold/sinus and couldn’t find it anywhere. It wasn’t until later that I found out it had pseudoephedrine in it. It is so frustrating that Oregon prevents me from buying OTC medicines that will help me feel better.
Stange place to draw the line. I would have thought the no-knock SWAT raids on the wrong address where civilians are killed by cops would have been it. But I can see where someone with the sniffles would be the tipping point.
Immagine that.You have to provide more I.D. To buy anti-contestant mere than Obama had to show to become President of the United States.Amazing.
Unfortunately, there are many cheerleaders on this site for that kind of gov't abuse of its citizens, all in the name of the utopian dream of a 'Drug-Free America'.
Drug War cheerleaders are no different than leftists.
Immagine that.You have to provide more I.D. To buy anti-contestant mere than Obama had to show to become President of the United States.Amazing.
Contestant should have been spelled as Congestant.
My 17 year old son had to buy fluids for his car. i.e. dry gas to mitigate water in the gas tank. Florida nanny laws disallow minors from buying dry gas cause it could be abused. He is trusted to drive a deadly weapon but can’t service it.
THANK YOU NANNY STATE IDIOTS.
Mucinex has the same effect as drinking lots of water
There are many other over the counter notions and nostrums for men to use.
isnt that special...i get p!ssed off everytime i have to show ID for OTC med that actually works...9/10 the person on the other side of the counter is too busy lookin me up and down to even be polite about the inconvenience either...
90 yrs later, prohibition is still an epic FAIL...
proff that gubmint has no clue about economics, or are simply flexing muscle on the peons...
I prefer the term 'Drug War whores', but that's just me.
A couple of years ago my entire family of four got hit with a pretty nasty virus. I went in to buy Nyquil, dayquil (for my husband at work), children’s cough and cold (for my daughter), sugar-free children’s cold/sinus (my son’s a diabetic)and Theraflu for myself to get through the day. We had four members with different needs and even different needs throughout the day. The virus was primarily expressing itself in my daughter’s lungs and in my poor son’s nose and throat.
I got “red flagged” at the checkout and had to sit down with the manager and justify each and every one of those medicines.
What made me the maddest was that I was trying to buy medicines that addressed my kids’ individual needs so they wouldn’t be getting anything that they didn’t need. I was trying NOT to over-medicate them.
And NOTHING was from behind the pharmacist counter.
I wanted to cough on him AND the checkout girl.
Off-topic: You’re saying that you have to be over 21 to buy methyl hydrate (the active, POISONOUS ingredient of ‘drygas’) in Fla? Any hardware store has the stuff, and anyone drinking it will be blind in minutes, and dead within hours.
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