Outlawing Sudafed?

[sandnsea]

Amongst a bunch of other stuff, most of which is stupid, the House passed a law to get a prescription for pseudoephedrine. I have a better idea, how about cops stop worrying about people going 5 miles over the speed limit and respond when you tell them there's a crack house in your neighborhood. Sheesh. I hate this shit and it's the kind of stuff that makes people reject Democrats too.

http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1121915725164780.xml&storylist=orlocal

[Avalux]

1. Sudafed is a very cheap decongestant.

There's more to it than the reason given to outlaw pseudoephedrine. If it's taken off the counter, it gives the pharma cos. the means to make more $$. I expect all cheap OTC medications to be regulated at some point.

[BeanCounting]

2. BINGO! n/t

[sandnsea]

7. Pharm is fighting this

No, this is all about meth. It's just stupid.

[HuckleB]

15. That's not true.

The Pharms are not happy about this at all. They won't sell nearly as much, and any cost increases are not going to cover that loss.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. It's because of meth

Blame the idiots who use sudafed to cook meth and risk blowing up their home and the whole neighborhood. It is a HUGE problem and if you are just now aware of it, count your blessings. These meth labs have been all over the midwest for more than a decade now.

[sandnsea]

9. I'm aware, but this is overkill

If you live in Oregon, you can't help but be aware. I live in a town of 7,000 and we have 2 or 3 houses go up in flames every year. I pressured the cops on a meth house 6 houses up the street from me. I know. Sooner or later, we're going to have to look at the breakdown in our society that leads to rampant drug use.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Oh I agree

But you know how law enforcement operates. Their agenda will be to prevent the labs from getting the ingredients to cook the meth. So they persuade our state legislators to put out fires by restricting the sale of sudafed. Sooner or later, we can only hope the lawmakers see that there is far more involved in dealing with the meth nightmare.

[Deep13]

4. goddammit

I use that stuff alot for my seemingly constant congestion. It is about the onlt decongestant there is and it works. In OH, it is OTC, but the pharmacist keeps it behind the counter now. What a pain in the ass!

[LSdemocrat]

5. Do you have a crystal meth problem in Oregon?

Pseudophedrine is one of the main ingredients in making crystal meth a.k.a hillbilly heroin.

[rateyes]

6. Right now you can still buy it OTC,,,,

but you have to ask the pharmacist for it...not on the shelves. If you now have to have a prescription---every time I want the allergy medication I need--have to go to a doctor and pay for an office visit----what a crock!

[napi21]

8. Are they doing this because it has one ingredient necessary

to make meth? Here in Ga. all the OTC drugs that contain pseudoephedrine are still sold without a scrip, but you must get them at the pharmacy window and you're only allowed to buy 3 pkgs at a time.

[MemphisTiger]

10. Yet you need hundreds of pill of sudafed for

one batch of meth. Just keep it to the 3 packet max, it'll be fine.

[oregonjen]

11. In the news the other night, they reported that even with a limit

all they had to do was go from store to store and eventually had enough collected to produce meth.

I'm completely against this bill, though. It will hurt us instead of helping.

[sandnsea]

13. They need to educate the public

How to identify a meth house, who to report it to. #1, tweakers all hours of the day and night. #2 funky odor.

How to get cops to act? In small town America, you simply tell them that if there is one victim from the tweakers at that crack house, you will inform the victim that the cops had been notified and didn't do anything. And that you WILL be watching. The one up the street from me was busted and closed in a week. I kid you not.

It is just not that hard to identify these houses. My 28 year old says, show up at the 7-11 at 2 am. Notice the guy in the sunglasses. Follow him. Tweakers aren't that sneaky.

[ten]

14. It only hurts the poor, so who cares?

Most of our meth comes from Mexico.
Most of our population lives a short drive from another state.
This bill will make it slightly less convenient for locals to brew their own meth.
This bill will have zero impact on meth use, as the out-of-state sources will EASILY pick up the slack (if any).

Who wins?
1) Legislators, who get to talk up how tough they are on meth without actually doing a damn thing.
2) Mexican drug cartels.

Who loses?
1) The poor, who can't afford a doctor's visit and a prescription every time they get a cold.
2) "Regular Joe's," who will see their health insurance rates go up (someone has to pay for the increase in doctor's visits) and their taxes go up (to pay for the same increase in cost to the OHP).

Since our Reps don't care about drug lords, the poor or "Regular Joe's," this bill ended up being a no brainer. Everybody important wins and nobody important loses, right?

[HuckleB]

16. This is a good way to increase the cost of meth.

And making it more expensive will increase crime rates, costing Oregonians more money in lost property, higher insurance and overcrowded prisons. It's bad policy, rooted in a history of failed drug policy.

Our lawmakers ought to be ashamed, but, alas, they seem to stupid to be ashamed.

[ten]

17. Probably won't even...

2/3rds of Oregon meth allegedly comes from Mexico. 1/3rd of the state is big to us, but we're a small state. That's a drop in the bucket compared to total meth production. It will be trivially easy for drug cartels to pick up the slack. Plus, the vast majority of our residents live within an hours drive of another state, where pseudoephedrin is available without a prescription.

[sandnsea]

19. Raise the cost to Medicaid too

People with allergies and colds will now have to go to the doctor to get a prescription medication that Medicaid will have to pay for. In fact, I'd bet we'll see a massive increase in these types of doctors appts., and find out in 2 years that, gasp, Medicaid has been paying for Sudafed for meth labs. Just beyond stupid.

The one to write on this is [e-mail]. He's the one who is behind this, from what I gather.

[Caoimhe]

18. Buying Sudafed Liquigels

is cost prohibitive to cooking meth. This is just an attempt by the Oregon legislature to stop a head wound with a fingertip bandaid. If it weren't so sad, it would be laughable. They bring in all these emotional witnesses to testify for this bill.. people with stories of meth and its effects. Yes, we all know. Yes, we see it daily. Yes, it is bad bad stuff. What does that have to do with me paying $5.50 for a box of sudafed? Absolutely nothing. Whatever you ban they find a workaround. This simplistic thinking and overzealous approach to the meth problem will do nothing to stop meth abuse in Oregon.