State lawmakers should be leery of a bill requiring prescriptions for cold and allergy medicines that contain ingredients used to make methamphetamine. The goal of the proposed law is worthy: reduce the number of “mom and pop†meth labs. But meth would still be available, as much of the drug is imported. And requiring law-abiding citizens to get a doctor’s prescription before they can buy Sudafed or Claritin D could significantly increase their costs. At what point does the cost of the drug war exceed its benefit?
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38 Comments
30 years ago.
You are already required to sign for the pills and present your driver’s license.
Law enforcement should be embarrassed that despite these efforts, they have been unable to stop illicit drug manufacture.
They should turn in their badges and perhaps become janitors…the work for which they are apparently suited.
What “War on Drugs”? Afghanistan’s opium production has grown 100 times since Bush went to war for more drugs.
As for this new proposal, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
I’m sure glad I nor any of my family don’t use any of the government’s drugs.
Agreed Phillip. It’s overkill.
When you need a decongestant now, you already have to sign for it at the pharmacy counter. I groused about that but thought that it had a large impact on availability of raw material for the meth labs. Did it not?
Look elsewhere legislators. You’ll be affecting too many folks.
“I groused about that but thought that it had a large impact on availability of raw material for the meth labs. Did it not? ”
Wrong! One of the main sources of ephedrine still continues to be Vick’s inhalers which are unregulated because they are not a pill.
However, the price of these inhalers went from 25 cents to over $5 ea when the drug companies found out what thwey were being used for.
Vick’s continues to supply the ephedrine for metaamphetamine at a tidy profit and law enforcement continues to look the other way!
Overkill. Who proposed it and why?
It’s already inconvenient to have to go to a pharmacy during open hours, especially ifyou’re stuffy after 6pm and realize that you’re out of sudafed. Thankfully you can still get something in a combo liquid to help. It’s the price we pay to reduce meth labs. You won’t totally get rid of the problem, but it has been significantly reduced. A prescription is stupid.
I’m also irked that they took a very effective product off the market for weight loss. I took phenylpropanalanine for awhile with fantastic results. To me, the benefit outweighs the risk. But the FDA saw to it that now I have to go get a more expensive script to control my appetite.
Is there any objective proof that any of this has reduced meth use? I know that meth lab busts are way down, but has use declined? Since professional drug runners are way harder to catch than small town meth runners, meth use may be up.
What “War on Drugs”? Afghanistan’s opium production has grown 100 times since Bush went to war for more drugs.
And the billions we send to Columbia (Hillary supports Columbia as well) ? Isn’t there a fine white powder produced there?
Yeah, great war. Almost a successful as Iraq.
There is nothing I could add, pretty much everything I have even said is being said here!
Gee, with all the Bush/afganistan/opium and HIllary/columbia/cocaine talk here – you’d think KS and its meth problem would be tiny. It isn’t. It’s huge and neither Hillary or Bush or a war had anything to do with it.
The cops are cracking down on meth labs and usage but it’s a big problem and if we sent all our law enforcement officers after that one item, where would they be when rapes and murders are committed?
A prescription may be going too far, but tightening the process by which people get the drug might help. That, and convincing farmers not to leave the ammonium nitrate tanks sitting in their fields overnight.
First, I don’t think it is necessary to go the next step and make cold medicines prescription only. However, I can tell you without doubt that moving the pseudoephedrine behind the counter has significantly reduced the number of local meth labs. It has not eliminated them, of course; as easy as meth is to produce (I could give you the recipe in a couple of paragraphs, but I’ll pass on that) it is literally impossible to stop such production entirely. Officers, of course, must operate within the bounds of the law, and that law means that they will be less efficient. The price of constitutional protections is less efficient and less effective law enforcement (and it’s a price worth paying, BTW – note that well, Chad).
The flip side of that however, is that imported meth has moved into the vacuum created by lesser local production. Overall supply has not changed much. That too was to be expected, unfortunately. Human beings being what they are, it was inevitable.
Ms Bellum had it right in the first post.
Ok lets think about this one…
We have the highest percentage of incarcerated people in the entire world. We have the highest # of people incarcerated in the entire world. we have a population that is dwarfed by China-a communist country-and yet we lock up many times more people than they do. 1 in 4 black males have either spent time in jail or will-predominately due to drug offenses. If somebody wants to put something in their body, so long as it doesnt lead to the harm of another person, who the heck cares? What business is it of government? That would be communism. Why do we destroy families, lock up harmless people, and fill our jails to overflowing, enabling those jailed for drug offenses to learn other more dangerous behavior from their fellow inmates? Whenever somebody brings up the Regan legacy, thats the part that sticks in my mind-the stupid war on drugs. He had good intentions, but when something is such an absolute, abysmal failure you have to know when to give up and allocate law enforcment resources where they need to be-protecting the people! The worst part of all of this is that the vast majority of Americans agree with me. Yet American Politics is a game played and refereed by those able to get the most votes. Nobody wants to appear “soft on crime”, regardless of what that crime is. Of course, as soon as it is no longer a crime, the manilpulative political posturing will end. At the risk of sounding like a bleeding heart liberal, the voters that just loved Regan will always be anti drug because to be otherwise just doesnt square with the way they perceived the former President. I have good news though. Look at Obamamania. This is a clear representation of the youth voter movement. People that were not brainwashed by the Reganites. Going forward, the war on drugs will be greatly reduced and the madness will eventually cease. And our families, communities, jails, and law enforcment personnel will all be better for it.
How many nathans are there on this blog and how do we keep y’all apart?
When you take away one drug, another drug will be used or created more dangerous than the last one. That is what meth is, meth is a volatile cocktail of cleaning chemicals and fertilizer that was created by chemists. Yes, a chemists had a mission to create a perfectly legal drug out of legal by-products to bypass the laws of using drugs that the government has made illegal. It’s really a vicious circle, it dosen’t end with jail time, but with treatment or death. If I could make a drug out of Coca-cola, cigarettes, and lawn clippings why should it be illegal. Since most drugs were outlawed that left the criminal enterprises free to control the prices of drugs on the black market, a lot of drugs that are otherwise safer than meth are too expensive for poor people to buy, so they resort to crack, and meth, and even more dangerous drugs. I think drug use is not bad, but really sad, people that use drugs need help not punishment. Now I agree cooking meth is dangerous and we should crack down on meth labs as we have been doing. But I also find it funny, I see more anti-Pot Ads on t.v. than I see anti-meth ads, could it be thats because the production of meth makes a lot of money for a lot of corporations, while pot makes money for only the criminals who grow and distribute it.
If I could make a drug out of Coca-cola, cigarettes, and lawn clippings why should it be illegal
bring back the old days of Coca cola and aspirin.
Buck, I agree mostly with what you’ve posted. I’ve no real evidence, just a gut feeling (and a bit of common sense, me being as common as they come) that the whole war on drugs is making someone money. You gotta admit it does put a lot of bodies into the law enforcement work force.
As a previous avid user of many ilicit substances (I’m not sure meth was around and smack scared me too much), I’ve come to the conclusion that drug use is God’s way of proving social and evolutionary darwinism.
“As a previous avid user of many ilicit substances (I’m not sure meth was around and smack scared me too much), I’ve come to the conclusion that drug use is God’s way of proving social and evolutionary darwinism.”
My thoughts exactly.
If I could make a drug out of Coca-cola.
Coca-cola is a drug; and it kills more people in a week than all of the illegal drugs combined do in a year. Eliminate the empty calories consumed in soft drinks and our obesity problem is eliminated. Also, for the most part, our diabetes problem.
I only indulge in sodie pop on the weekends. Makes me water the flowers too much, and I can’t drop what I’m doing at work when nature calls.
30 years ago.
Damn, beat me to it!
What about uninsured people who can’t go to the doctor when they have a cold? You’re punishing them for a crime they didn’t commit.
There’s a benefit of the Drug War?
What about uninsured people who can’t go to the doctor when they have a cold?
or the people who can’t afford to go for a doctors visit precisely BECAUSE they have insurance and can no longer cough up the $40 co-pay.
This bill is just another attempt of the politicians to make everyone else think they are actually doing something about a problem. Smoke and mirrors from both parties. Stupid is as stupid does.
Oh goody, people not only need to go to Canada to get their drugs but now people in Kansas will have to go across the border to Oklahoma or Missouri to get their drugs.
Or we could just do something as simple as order it online at Amazon. Yet another stupid law proposed by stupid politicians.
hmmm. I fully recognize the impact of the war on drugs,andit’s costs. Whether or not it has actually stopped people from ruining their lives with these substances is only speculation one way or the other. However I come down on the side of not legalizing more poisons. Making something legal that was once illegal, gives the signal that hey, it’s okay. I do not think that is the proper approach. However, busting the little guy, the end user, and throwing them in jail does little good. Mandantory outpatient treatment program (for at least the first offense is much better) Second offense, may tighten down on them. The problem must be approached differently, I agree. I just don;t think legalizing another poison (such as meth) is the answer.
Oh goody, people not only need to go to Canada to get their drugs but now people in Kansas will have to go across the border to Oklahoma or Missouri to get their drugs.
Y’know, I was seriously considering buying my textbooks from europe. they were near 1/2 the price, even including shipping than buying at campus bookstore. Things cost more in America because Americans PAY.
I remember when the Lexus first came out. Brand new car so their ad campaign compared it with other cars on the market: Lexus has a chasis like this $20k car. Paint of this other $20k car. Interior just like this other $20k car. But, we’re going to charge you $40k because you can afford it and you’re special.
I read this as ‘you got too much money and too little sense’, but hey, that’s America fer ya.
What about uninsured people who can’t go to the doctor when they have a cold? You’re punishing them for a crime they didn’t commit.
suzanne beat me to it on this. I’ll add a big AMEN.
Hey, let’s just make the insurance companies MORE money! No doubt if this continues throughout the country, they’ll feel the need to raise premiums again…and again…and again…ad nauseum.
Agree with many above. “Behind the counter” and then sign and ID should be plenty.
I am burning a number while I type this. It is rainind here in Tampa and we have plenty of good weed around!
OK you all may not want to know this, but since the cold meds went behind the counter. A trend developed, the meth makers are collecting the users pee to get the ingredient needed to make meth! And I know the list of ingredients adding the fact that it is now using human urine to the mix of lighter fluid, paint thinner, starter fluid and the like. All of which will kill you if you were to swallow it, somehow pee seem the least of ingredients!
Meth is the first “street drug” that could be entirely made at home – hence the dangers of that particular drug.
The meth cookers will find away around any law restricting the purchase of cold medicines. Most never bought it in the first place, using shoplifting schemes to get the necessary ingredients.
There are some street drugs that are truly dangerous, prone to producing overdoses and nearly instantaneous addiction. Marijuana is not one of them.
Cocaine and it’s derivative crack can produce instant death even for first time users; witness, Len Bias and Don Rogers. Heroin is extremely dangerous because even a slightly more pure mix can result in overdose.
Education is the key to dealing with drug problems, but the educators look like hypocrites when they compare marijuana to street drugs, resulting in their messages being ignored.
Seems the manufacturers of illegal drugs are consistently more imaginative than the people who run this war on drugs. That’s not particularly good karma for the people who think it’s their god-given duty to protect their neighbors from the dangers of feeling good every once in a while.
Meth is the first “street drug” that could be entirely made at home
Wrong: Marijuana can be made at home, as well as opium, and any number of psychedelics W.S. Clark. You like grow them in the dirt.
“Kansas”, get your facts straight before you go spouting off about stuff. Kansas law enforcement has cut the amount of meth labs to a fraction of what they were prior to having to sign for cold medicine. A vast majority of the meth coming in now is made in Mexico, which is where most drugs cross the border anyway.
>>suzannekarmin
Posted March 14, 2008 at 10:21 am | Permalink
What about uninsured people who can’t go to the doctor when they have a cold? You’re punishing them for a crime they didn’t commit.<<<
The uninsured will go to the emergency rooms and drive up the cost of healthcare.
“Medicines that could be used in making meth
Allergy and cold medicines containing these drugs can be used by people who cook meth: ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and phenylpropanolamine.
Among over-the-counter medicines that can contain pseudoephedrine:
• Actifed Cold and Sinus
• Claritin D
• Drixoral Nasal Decongestant
• Pedia Relief
• Sudafed
• Triaminic AM Decongestant Syrup
Some of these drugs, such as Sudafed, have formulations with phenylephrine, which cannot be converted into meth.
Number of meth lab seizures in Kansas
Meth lab seizures in Kansas dropped dramatically in 2006. A state law that took effect in June 2005 pushed all medicines that could be used to make meth behind the counter and required consumers to sign for them.
2001: 425
2002: 311
2003: 302
2004: 191
2005: 130
2006: 48
2007: 42
Seems like the present law is working just find, we don’t need this new law.
“Seems like the present law is working just find, we don’t need this new law.”
I agree.
Without prescription pharmacy http://rxwithoutprescription.com/
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