Senate Approves Tight Control on Cold Medicine to Fight Meth

[The Straight Story]

Senate Approves Tight Control on Cold Medicine to Fight Meth
Written for the web by C. Johnson, Internet News Producer


Included in the Senate's renewal of the Patriot Act is legislation that would make it more difficult to buy over-the-counter drugs containing ingredients used to make methamphetamine.

The Combat Meth Act, co-sponsored by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, moves cold and cough medicines containing pseudoephedrine, ephedrine and phenylpropanolamine behind drugstore counters. Customers would have to show identification and sign a logbook when purchasing such medicines. They would also be limited to buying medication containing a total of no more than 9 grams of those chemicals in a month and no more than 3.6 grams in a single day.

The measure also directs the Drug Enforcement Administration to reclassify meth precursor ingredients so that stiffer criminal penalties can be imposed on its producers.

The act provides for legitimate consumers to continue to purchase medicines they need without a prescription.

http://www.kxtv.com/storyfull2.aspx?storyid=16241

I say we make a run on the stores for these meds, en masse, just to mess with em :)

[SmokingJacket]

1. Has this actually had any effect in the states that are already doing it?

I say this as a person without prescription coverage who uses Sudafed to deal with chronic sinus problems.

Hey, I'll suffer the inconvenience happily if it keeps people off meth.

But the anecdotal evidence I've heard from places like Montana seems to indicate that keeping these medicines off the shelves hasn't put so much as dent in the problem.

[pitohui]

5. more profit for the mexican drug dealers

their meth is supposedly of better quality anyway

there is a reason mexico has more billionaires than the usa and that reason is pharmaceuticals, so by all means, let's make more laws to price support the poor pitiful mexican billionaire

[LostinVA]

12. No -- big drop in "home cooking" but amount of meth available through the

My sister, a Repub, live s in OKlahoma, and they have huge amounts of meth coming from Mexico. She's a nurse, and says the medical fallout from this is way worse than before. She also hates having to register for her allergy meds (as do I).

[napi21]

2. Naw, a run on the stores now would be a mistake.

They would see that as proving their side is right.

I suspect all they're doing is creating a black market for damn cold pills!

[DemNoir]

3. Tiny step in the right direction

What we really need is a total ban on ephedrin production. There are other drugs that do the same thing, but ephedrin is cheap and profitable. Can't make the drug companies angry you know.

[pitohui]

4. hmm maybe we can defoliate the entire states of utah and nevada

i'm afraid that ephedra is not exactly an uncommon weed

when ephedrine is outlawed only outlaws will have ephedrine

i have a radical idea, why don't allow people to buy the medicines they want and if they want to go home and kill themselves, frankly, small loss, it beats giving them motive to rob me and kill me to get the $$$ for their chemicals

[LostinVA]

13. No, we don't -- it's THE only thing that BEGINS to help

my allergies. NOTHING else does. Without it, I am literally in constant pain and misery, and constantly sleepy and lethargic.

[stevietheman]

16. I've found nothing that works as well for me as pseudoephedrine.

I have chronic sinusitis and without taking p-e every morning, I'd have ongoing sinus headaches. Nothing but p-e seems to work for me--alternatives either are ineffective, make me drowsy, or make me edgy. For me, p-e has no side effects and does the job.

[benburch]

6. But here is what will actually happen...

This will put major cash into the pockets of Mexican drug lords!

The demand for Meth will not decline. This will drive up the price. Mexican drug lords will fill in the gap by supplying as much as required at a dear price.

The ONLY solution to this problem is blanket legalization of all drugs.

[stevietheman]

18. I'm generally in league with that...

My position is legalization of marijuana, and decriminalization of the more intense drugs (i.e., push people into treatment rather than prisons).

[benburch]

19. Anything that gives room for a black market will just perperuate this.

Forcing people into treatment will cause some to operate outside of the system.

I knew a heroin addict who was an illegal alien and a sexworker. To enter the methadone system would have been to be deported to England, where she had never lived in her life. She was born there three days before her folks moved here.

[stevietheman]

21. Well, we have to admit these people do cause harm with their...

addictions... but it's a matter of how we deal with the harm-- by helping them with treatment or by ruining their lives entirely with imprisonment.

There are always exceptions of a few people who might be negatively affected by forced treatment, but I'm thinking of the enormous numbers of people in prison right now who really shouldn't be there.

Complete legalization, I'm afraid, is socially negligent.

[benburch]

23. Actually, I think it is the opposite...

LESS socially negligent to have blanket legalization!

Follow me on this...

With complete legalization there will be no more black market sellets. All drugs will be professionally produced, and impurities in them basically nonexistant.

And the worst of drugs, things like PCP, would have no market whatsoever. Too much liability for the makers! And there would be zero demand for drugs like that because of the many obtainable and safer alternatives. Who would use PCP when you can get opium or hashish? Who would use meth when you can get dexedrine and benzedrine cheaply? Who would use Special-K or DXM when you can get mushrooms and LSD?

The drugs would have to be bought at a liquor store or similar, and THAT is where you have your opportunity to help the addict. At the point of sale you make VOLUNTARY treatment available to them. In fact, you can have voluntary treatment that is not government sponsored or regulated, so you can reach the illegals and others who cannot risk having the government know where they are. Its like this... Would you rather a wanted felon be at large as a drug addict, or would you rather a wanted felon be at large while attending a treatment program?

And I would include alcoholism in this point of sale strategy.

The only time I would force any treatment on anybody is if they present at an ER with an overdose.

[stevietheman]

26. I see drug abuse like severe mental illness, and like the severe...

mentally ill, the government needs to step in ensure they receive treatment. Treatment is not a punishment, but more of a correction. Decriminalization would convert what are now drug felonies into infractions.

Also, I believe that if marijuana were completely legalized, that would drain the interest of a lot of people to play with the other much more harmful drugs. Along with that, we should have truthful education on what drugs do to our bodies, the positive and the negative (no more "drugs are bad, mmm-k?").

Drugs like heroin are extremely unsafe and must be be controlled. And if that creates a black market, so be it. They're controlled because they're harmful. But if, as you say, there are relatively safe, clean alternatives, then I agree that they should be examined for legalization. But blanket legalization without consideration of the ramifications? Heck, no.

I generally believe in body rights, and even the basic right to ingest any kind of drug, but people on many of these drugs do crazy things, and society has a right to intervene on that. So it's a balance of personal rights versus community sovereignty. What we do to ourselves sometimes affects others.

[VelmaD]

7. Dianne Feinstein can kiss my ass

This will do NOTHING to impact meth production or use. More than 3/4 of meth is produced in big, illegal labs...not in the kind of mom and pop operations than get their ingredients from OTC cold pills. All this does is make it harder for people who are sick to get medication. And with the limit on the amount you can buy in one day...what the hell are you supposed to do if you and your spouse and both your kids are sick at the same time? And how they hell do they plan on tracking how much people have bought in a day or a month? They'll either do what Texas does now...you sign yourname in a book that no one ever actually looks at...or they'll have to create a costly new database that pries even further into our private lives.

Did I mention Dianne Feinstein can kiss my ass for co-sponsoring this garbage. And the Dems who voted for it can line up and kiss it when she's done.

[Mandate My Ass]

10. busy work

to fill the time Bush is overseas selling us out. When he gets back, they'll be quite busy wringing their hands ineffectually over the ports deal.

It's hard work. :eyes:

I suspect the method of tracking it is already in place, along with where you surf on your computer, your health records, credit score, book choices, etc.

[Sparkman]

14. The only effect, req'g ID at point of sale, is to deny migrants/poor meds.

The 3/4 is probably low, because speed is available via prescription. So is Cocaine, as pain relief. So is Heroin, via Morphine prescription. Control...Control...Control.
ALMOST makes me turn LIBERTARIAN. LESS government...Frau Feinstein's allys in the RW come in both parties, and both are funding the wealthy class via legislating business contracts like this.

[mongo]

8. This does nothing to stop meth

Meth labs aren't going to CVS for pseudophed -- they buy it from crooked distributors by the case. Can't rein the the distributors that mostly cater to convenience stores, and make them accountable for the amount and who they are selling to -- not when it's easier, and makes it look like you are doing something to hassle your local consumer with sinus problems.

Get used to being watched. Sign for pseudophed, have your calls monitored by the NSA -- it's all for the common good. No need to worry about that pesky constitution anymore.

[TechBear_Seattle]

9. The one med I have found useful for my sinus allergies

Let's hear it for American healthcare!

[sui generis]

11. it's grandstanding

if the stuff is already liquid chances are very good it's the sulfate version or other analogue and that it can't be used, so liquid cough syrups, Nyquil, et al, aren't used to make meth anyway.

The REAL solution, duh, is to insist on making all cold medicine in a form that can't be cracked into meth rather than burdening customers and pharmacies with extra legislation.

[tjwash]

15. If they waved a magic wand, completely eliminating OTC cold medicines...

...that would take care of MAYBE 5% of the meth that gets made here. The junkies call the shit made from cold medicine "dirty sock dope."

The stupid fucking feds don't realize that they created the meth industry as it is run today. In the mid eighties, they tried the same thing with L-Ephedrine P, Ether, and P2P. The L-Ephed makes the "glass" that is the stuff which is easily rocked to smoke, and the P2P makes what the bikers used to call "peanut butter crank." It created a vast illegal industry, to where these materials come over the border from Mexico into Arizona, and gets trucked out to the kitchens from there. Didn't these idiots learn a damn thing from prohibition?

[MadHound]

17. More stupidity, more of our civil liberties slipping away

This is going to do absolutely nothing to stop the flow of meth, nor will it bring about a decline in meth usage. Most meth is being made in large labs that buy their pseudoephedrine in bulk, either from overseas suppliers, or from crooked locals.

Meanwhile, the garage chemists will start deriving the needed chemicals from plants like ma huang and mormon tea, and thus, will soon be back up and running.

The only thing that has been known to decrease the usage rates of any drug is legalization. I suggest that we do that, not only with meth but all currently illegal drugs. Not only will we see drug use decline, but we will eliminate the secondary crime wave that illegal drugs bring about and with a taxation on such drugs we can fund both education and drug rehab programs that will make a real difference. Oh, and we can reclaim our civil liberties that have been eaten alive by this endless War on Drugs.

[Avalux]

20. Cold medicine doesn't work anyway.

I know that's not the point here; but they really don't. Drug companies make billions on cold medications every year; the ingredients are the the same but they're marketed under different brand names. Everyone should just stop buying them.

[SmokingJacket]

22. Sudafed and other forms of pseudoephedrine are the only thing

that clears my sinuses and eliminates sinus pressure. It definitely works, and it's cheap.

Nothing cures a cold, of course.

[KurtNYC]

27. Pennsylvania State College of Medicine did a study - "ineffective"

In a study of 100 youngsters with upper-respiratory infections, neither of two ingredients -- dextromethorphan and diphenhydramine - was more effective than a placebo in improving the kids' nighttime cough and sleep, Pennsylvania State College of Medicine scientists report in the current issue of the journal Pediatrics. The placebo was a syrup with no reputed medicinal value.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/07/08/MNGNF7I1G31.DTL

Just makes your vision blurry and your head heavy. A worthless rip-off.

[Harald Ragnarsson]

24. Fight, War, Battle, Attack

It gets kind of depressing lving in a country with only a hammer in its' toolbox.

[High Plains]

25. Ah, the Mexican Meth Market Share Enhancement Act

The Amezcua brothers down in Guadalajara say "Gracias, amigos."