The yearly pain-in-the-ass that is getting our winter colds meds has me almost all the way towards favoring legalization of everything. Almost. One more winter of it might do it.

And you only have to visit Bandera, Texas (among a gazillion other places, I'm sure, this is just the one with which I'm most familiar, having lived right outside of it) and its surrounding little towns (Tarpley comes to mind) to discover that all of these regulations have slowed the meth labs down...not one bit.

They've merely slowed momof4 and myself down when getting cold meds. Now there's a governmental accomplishment of which to be proud!

I've remarked more than once that it is now easier to get cocaine than it is to get Sudafed.

And like you, I've commented that all this did for the meth trade was move the bulk of the deaths to Mexico where they make a higher grade meth than your bathtub junkies could ever hope to come up with.

It seems like meth labs have gone down in this area. I don't know if it has to do with law or not. There has been an increase in the new meth manufacturing technique that uses smaller quantities in a soda bottle. All in all things seem like big improvement.

I don't see a better solution than the pharmacies enforcing the rules...maybe banning the products all together?

A friend's father had a huge problem when someone turned his rental property in a meth lab. The property was estimated at $250k before the lab. Cleaning up the property was estimated at $350k. The individual had no assets and was in jail so basically he was out 100k.

Yeah, I'm waiting for pseudophedrine to become a Schedule I controlled substance. That'll fix it! No one will ever dare make meth again! I'll tell you how idiotic this whole thing has gotten. At the Wal-Marts here, you have to show a driver's license in order to purchase... motor oil. Why? Because someone heard from their brother-in-law's uncle's barber's cousin that you can make meth from motor oil!

The federal government seems hell-bent on eliminating all of the benefits that chemistry has provided to our standard of living over the past century. We get bit by bedbugs because all pesticides that were effective against them have been banned. We get more colds and flu and other things because the drugs that prevented or cured them are being driven off the market. Foods become unavailable because the federal government has determined that the plastic packaging leaves a residue of 0.000000000000000000000000000000002 parts per trillion in the food, and there is no other packaging material that prevents the food from spoiling. Our dishes don't get clean because detergent is illegal. I'm waiting for all dyes and dry-cleaning solutions to be banned and we all go back to wearing dun-colored broadcloth. And they'll be smelly because the federal government won't permit the sale of a washing machine that actually gets the clothes wet.

This is Sudafed for God's sake! And we're turning it into a criminal offense?

When I get a sinus headache, pseudoephedrine is the only thing that works. So if the cold hits after pharmacy hours, I get to lie awake all night suffering. I realize this is a minor problem in the grand scheme. But it's symptomatic of yet another unintended consequence of the war on drugs--the criminalization of pain.

There are people going to jail for Sudafed possession and normal retail sales. Look at this sting set-up:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/04/national/04meth.html?_r=1&ex=1280808000&en=a41fb1285fa792f3&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Is this how you want your tax dollars spent? Harassing hard-working immigrants who are trying to build businesses to the point where they're seriously considering emigrating back to India?

These minor sacrifices of personal freedom--all well-rationalized--are adding up to major destruction of liberty across the country.

It's interesting because it wasn't that long ago that columnists were complaining because methheads were openly buying huge amounts of cold medicine with no one caring.

Well, KrisL, I'm certain this columnist wasn't one of them.

Hey! Wake up! This is what you get when you LEGALIZE a drug.

The regulations surrounding the sale of pseudoephedrine ARE legal!

If you think you're getting LESS hassle by "legalizing" something you're fond of, just wait until someone adulterates it and an injury occurs. You'll be right here with the meth-lab response. In which case, all that was needed was a "limit 1 per customer" rule that the store sticks to.

Again: mishandling the application of a law isn't the whole argument for abolishing that law.

This whole thing has more to do with the patent on the product used to replace pseudoephedrine than it has to do with meth. manufacturing.

Nice piece - Speaking of which , if anyone needs a CA 5020 , my business partner came across a sample document here or www.cdph.ca.gov.