Yes, now there are a half-dozen varieties of jacksquatocil on the shelves…
AHunter3 said:
Have you tried looking for other brand names, like Lodrane, or BroveX?
The goal of the original, local/state laws was to reduce local meth production, because the labs were a hazard to emergency responders and an unwanted expense to local taxpayers. These were demonstrably effective at reducing local, informal, dangerous meth production and became popular. “Oklahoma was the first state to restrict access to pseudoephedrine, and the results were dramatic: the first month the law was in force, Oklahoma experienced a forty-five percent reduction in the number of methamphetamine laboratories seized by law enforcement” (from here http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-6563895/One-stop-no-stop-two.html) Pages 5 and 6 here also do a good job of discussing the “small toxic labs” issue: http://www.paindr.com/Pseudoephedrine.pdf
However, with each state implementing its own, the logical conclusion would be to concentrate meth production in whichever US state was last to implement. This led to national legislation in 2005 (pages 9-10 of the link above discuss rationale), which has been effective at moving meth production out of the US, primarily to Mexico.
Since the original intent was around reducing risks to emergency responders and local tax expenses for dealing with the dangers of small scale meth labs, the laws are generally considered a success in that regard. There *might *be an argument that the larger labs in Mexico, a country with fewer law enforcement resources, have had enough negative consequences there and here that it would actually be better to have the manufacturing take place in the US. But with statistics like this “For example, at any given time, between 30% and 90% of burn
patients at Arkansas Children’s Hospital are being treated for injuries caused by meth lab explosions.” (from the link above) no one really wants meth production in their backyard.
Yes, but thanks for mentioning some I was not familiar with!
Methylamine is a gas and is often sold as a 40% solution in water, which is the form I use when converting a phthalimide to a primary amine (and the only time I’ve ever used the stuff.) I can normally get a chemical from Aldrich in a day or two. The freaking DEA means that it takes a week to get something like methylamine.
What’s annoying is that Pfizer is sitting on the patent for the other enantiomer of pseudoephedrine and has not put in an application to the FDA. That enantiomer should be a better drug overall with the added bonus of not being useful in meth production. It’d be another decade before the patent expires and someone else could bring it up.
Exactly, but if you want “straight-up” antihistamines, then that’s what Benadryl, etc., are.
Instead of requiring the photo ID, maybe they should have just made pseudoephedrine a controlled substance with the proviso that the pharmacist could write the prescription. That way we could still buy it OTC but the controls of triplicate prescription requirements would be in place to monitor and track.
OTC in most British chemists, or even off-the-shelf in some supermarkets, though the maximum pack size is now 12 (used to be 24). I’ve occasionally had pharmacists query my request for 2 packs of 12, so I just tell them it’s only a little crystal meth lab I’ve got*. They still sell it to me.
It is, however, highly illegal in Japan, as it’s the perfect abusable drug for an overworked people with a snot taboo. I didn’t know this when I used to visit Japan regularly, and would have a stash in my briefcase that I would dig into during business meetings to ward off jet lag and sniffles. I was horrified when I found out the legal status, as I could have quite innocently got myself into a whole world of woe.**
- UK Police: Not really.
** Japanese Police: An honest mistake. Come and get me.
Interesting. Is it pseudoephedrine itself that is illegal as a drug of abuse, or is it illegal as a precusor to meth like in the US?
Harriet, it’s the pseudoephedrine itself that’s classed as an abusable stimulant in Japan. With virtually-impossible-to-obtain permission medicines with up to 10% pseudoephedrine are grudgingly allowed (US embassy link).
The Japanese authorities don’t like codeine phosphate much either - I’ve enough of that on me right now (legit prescription) to rot in a Japanese jail for years. Thinking about it, I probably had some OTC Nurofen Plus (ibuprofen and codeine) on me in Japan too. Eek.
I was a model citizen before I fell in with that delinquent cetacean crowd.