(One from the archive, but this issue is still being fought out in various legislatures)
It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. The GOP has a problem with the proposed new rules on curbing accessibility to Pseudoephedrine and Ephedrine (as if you can even find Ephedrine anywhere to start with) Not that proposed new rules on cold medications go too far:
“The scourge of methamphetamine demands unconventional thinking and innovative solutions to fight the devastation it leaves behind,” Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez said in announcing the administration’s new meth proposals.
But the proposals would not be tough enough to stop people from “cooking” meth, lawmakers say.
The Bush plan also would not require that cold medicines be sold from behind pharmacy counters, a key part of congressional legislation proposed by Sen. Jim Talent, a Republican from Missouri, and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California.
usatoday.com
No, the Meth plague has to be fought even more stringently than the Bush administration is proposing (Question: if it’s a plague, where is the massive increase in victims? Where are the facts and figures to back up this fear-mongering assertion?) Never mind that some people might need to have access to cold and flu medications. Never mind that some of us don’t care to be listed in their database as known purchasers of pseudoephedrine containing medications. Nope. We have to start a witch hunt so that we can ride that fear into another re-election campaign.
BTW, the only attempt at factual reporting is the link at the bottom of the page. It leads to the anti-meth site. Facts and figures about illegal methamphetamine (there is legally available prescription meth. Does anyone remember this? No) It is factual in that the site declares itself as anti-meth, which is the only fact available in any of the stories I’ve read to date.
Since writing the above last August, the fed passed their standardized rules for the whole nation; I can now have the liberty of being treated as if I would go out and start a meth lab if they would only let me buy a truck load of Pseudoephedrine. As if the people running these labs walked into a pharmacy and bought the drugs over the counter.
And if you think it’ll stop anytime soon:
Experts say teens and young adults are increasingly buying over-the-counter cough syrups and cold medications to get high from one of their main ingredients – dextromethorphan, or DXM. The ingredient is in about 200 products.
“It causes dissociative hallucinations and out-of-body experiences,” said Dr. Ilene B. Anderson, a clinical professor at UC San Francisco’s School of Pharmacy, who compared the fix to “a PCP-like high.”
This week the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which represents nonprescription drug makers, launched a national education campaign through Web sites, TV and radio spots, and brochures about cough-medication abuse.
Dangerous high sold over the counter
They’ll be targeting your cough medicine next. Hello stupid parents! Cough medicine disappearing from the cabinet? Maybe you should quiz the kid, ya think? Soon we’ll have to sign to buy detergent, moth balls, fertilizer and fuel. Wouldn’t want you making any bombs in your kitchen now, would we?
Rev. 06/14/22
