The USA Patriot Act "Fights" Meth
posted by Will
It turns out that the renewal of the scary USA Patriot Act includes a provision that would "regulate" the sale of over-the-counter decongestants, which are the easiest source of raw materials for manufacturing crystal meth. After reading Steve Suo's excellent reporting in The Oregonian recently, it's obvious that grotesquely destructive crystal meth only exists as a result of a few stupid policies. (It also happens to be, as Congress just acknowledged, harmful to the innocent who live in communities where it is manufactured.) So why isn't this new "tough" law tough enough to cut off the supply of the ingredients altogether? Why is this only coming as an add-on to the Patriot Act? Why hasn't it been on the books for a long time? Why can't we send "classic" Sudafed to the big medicine cabinet in hell, where we (at least tried to) put ephedra and Vioxx? Answer: Big Pharma and "the American consumer" must not be inconvenienced.
cont'd after link
As Suo reports, the meth ingredients are made in only 4 countries, and are not necessary for producing decongestants and other drugs. Alternatives that cannot be made into crystal meth are already on the market. Congress should require that only those alternatives be manufactured at all. Slightly stiffer regulation of sales won't do anything. They'll get armies of addicts out on the streets going from Walgreens to Rite Aid to Duane Reade to CVS all day long, buying one pack of Sudafed or the "new" OTC Claritin-D with pseudoephedrine in its formula, and then they'll walk down the street or go to the next town over to buy more in other stores. They are addicts. Crazy addicts. They will not be stopped by formalities. They will be stopped if what they want in the first place doesn't exist anymore.
The stupidity of the users is astounding, certainly, but even worse is the stupidity of our country's inability to regulate the production of this terrible drug's ingredients. Think of the cost to society--prison terms, health effects, law enforcement. This should be a larger political issue than it is. A surprisingly large number of Americans are rotting on this stuff.
An analogy: What if there were a certain kind of laundry detergent, Fluffy Breeze. Now, Fluffy Breeze is discovered to be very easily converted into a highly effective explosive. Let's say Fluffy Breeze was used in thousands of explosions all around the country each year. Would anyone care if the Fluffy Breeze company didn't want to completely switch to manufacturing its just-as-effective Fluffy Breeze NE ("Non-Explosive") detergent, but instead wanted to "regulate" the explosive Fluffy Breeze, selling it "behind the counter", just one bottle per customer?
Failure to address this epidemic with real action that stands up to the Big Pharma lobby is a national shame.
cont'd after link
As Suo reports, the meth ingredients are made in only 4 countries, and are not necessary for producing decongestants and other drugs. Alternatives that cannot be made into crystal meth are already on the market. Congress should require that only those alternatives be manufactured at all. Slightly stiffer regulation of sales won't do anything. They'll get armies of addicts out on the streets going from Walgreens to Rite Aid to Duane Reade to CVS all day long, buying one pack of Sudafed or the "new" OTC Claritin-D with pseudoephedrine in its formula, and then they'll walk down the street or go to the next town over to buy more in other stores. They are addicts. Crazy addicts. They will not be stopped by formalities. They will be stopped if what they want in the first place doesn't exist anymore.
The stupidity of the users is astounding, certainly, but even worse is the stupidity of our country's inability to regulate the production of this terrible drug's ingredients. Think of the cost to society--prison terms, health effects, law enforcement. This should be a larger political issue than it is. A surprisingly large number of Americans are rotting on this stuff.
An analogy: What if there were a certain kind of laundry detergent, Fluffy Breeze. Now, Fluffy Breeze is discovered to be very easily converted into a highly effective explosive. Let's say Fluffy Breeze was used in thousands of explosions all around the country each year. Would anyone care if the Fluffy Breeze company didn't want to completely switch to manufacturing its just-as-effective Fluffy Breeze NE ("Non-Explosive") detergent, but instead wanted to "regulate" the explosive Fluffy Breeze, selling it "behind the counter", just one bottle per customer?
Failure to address this epidemic with real action that stands up to the Big Pharma lobby is a national shame.
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