# Meth and Sudafed..policy stupidity in the land of corn. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 20, 2005, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meth-and-sudafed-policy-stupidity-in-the-land-of-corn/322475 "2005-09-20T02:06:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meth-and-sudafed-policy-stupidity-in-the-land-of-corn/322475/61 "2005-09-20T22:11:24Z")
Right you are **Duke** my friend. That anhydrous is the reason for the ‘moon suits’ as well. Exposure to the stuff can do as little as burn you, and as much as kill you, with the added benefits of lung burns and blindness. It’s got less to do with panic as some suggest, and more to do with safety of the responders. The thing is, the cessation of the sale of the precursor IS stopping the recreational meth users/dealers/sellers. In Illinois, at least in the central part (cite is not online) meth arrests went down 20 percent after certain counties tightened the grip on pseudo. Until then, cookers were leisurely walking out of Wal-Mart with enough pseudo-containing drugs to make a pound of meth (which is a HUGE amount). It shouldn’t be that easy, but it is. The cookers are stealing the anhydrous too. Putting it in pails, and coolers and propane canisters, which tip, and subsequently leak, causing a hazardous material incident. The cost of this epidemic is too high to do nothing. I think it would be quicker, easier and more sensible to make conviction on the posession of any meth at all a felony with an automatic five year sentence, and an additional five years for every gram after 1, but that’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meth-and-sudafed-policy-stupidity-in-the-land-of-corn/322475/62 "2005-09-20T22:20:40Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > Measuring big busts gives you an idea of what organized crime is doing – it doesn’t tell you squat about how much meth is actually being cooked and used. > > This law makes it less practical to have large, centralized distribution networks. It shifts things onto smaller scale operations that make actually increase the number of dangerous cooks in close proximity to other citizens. The gangs may be importing their stuff in order to keep their fingers in the pie, but you’ll also see more cookers in kitchens, using mason jars and crap. > > It’s not effective – it just pushes the dirt around. Actually **Larry** The facts of the matter are, that most of the meth ‘labs’ are already individual, and clandestine ones. These are the ones that the law restricting the supply of the main ingredient is meant to stop. It’s not just pushing dirt, it’s resulting in fewer labs. The problem with the statistics here in the States is that when the ‘labs’ are found, and then reported to the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC, the feds do love their acronyms) the AHJ (authority having jurisdiction) gets the credit for it, and the more ‘labs’ they find and bust, the more grant money they get to fight the meth ‘problem’ and who doesn’t love a budget increase. All of a sudden we’re expending resources that are already stretched, to fight something that’s not as big a problem as they originally believed it was. The laws controlling the pseudo work, and yeah, it’s a hassle, but then, so is being searched at the airport. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2005, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meth-and-sudafed-policy-stupidity-in-the-land-of-corn/322475/63 "2005-09-21T00:02:05Z")
> [@buttonjockey308](#): > > Actually **Larry** The facts of the matter are, that most of the meth ‘labs’ are already individual, and clandestine ones. This is a fair point, and after a closer look, one that’s made in the linked article. I withdraw my speculation about the efficacy of the law to keep meth production out of local neighborhoods, in the interest of keeping my eye teeth. > [@](#): > > The laws controlling the pseudo work, and yeah, it’s a hassle, but then, so is being searched at the airport. I wonder about the cost/benefits involved in this trade-off. Pseudoephedrine is a good drug to have convenient access to. I have no problem with it being behind the counter in the sense that controlled items like tobacco products or high-theft items like razor blades are, I guess. So long as they don’t reschedule it. ---
**Author:** ![zenith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zenith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zenith)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meth-and-sudafed-policy-stupidity-in-the-land-of-corn/322475/64 "2005-09-21T15:00:10Z")
> [@FilmGeek](#): > > A quarter a pill? Where do you live and can I move there? It’s $1 a pill here, and I had to stop taking it because it got so expensive. Much more expensive than when it was prescription. (and I haven’t had health insurance in years). Target Stores has its own brand of Loratidine for $2.50/ 10-tablet package. Unlike the grocery store brand that costs $4.29, it doesn’t come from the Third World. It’s made by Novartis Labs in Lincoln, NE. My wife, who’s very allergically reactive to mosquito bites, says it works better than Benadryl for the purpose of calming itches. BTW, the company that makes the Claritin-branded Loratidine has a “skin allergy formula” that’s the same 10 mg dose as “regular Claritin” for a buck more/ package than “regular”. I hope this was helpful. ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2005, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meth-and-sudafed-policy-stupidity-in-the-land-of-corn/322475/65 "2005-09-21T15:21:53Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > I wonder about the cost/benefits involved in this trade-off. Pseudoephedrine is a good drug to have convenient access to. I have no problem with it being behind the counter in the sense that controlled items like tobacco products or high-theft items like razor blades are, I guess. So long as they don’t reschedule it. Well, from the viewpoint of a first responder, the benefits outweigh the cost. If Wal-K-Farm Mart can help put the brakes on some little tweaker jerkoff cooking his stash in his bedroom, which then starts a fire that I have to put out, I’d say it’s a winner. I agree that it shouldn’t be rescheduled, that would be stupid, but behind the counter? Great idea. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2005, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meth-and-sudafed-policy-stupidity-in-the-land-of-corn/322475/66 "2005-09-21T15:41:02Z")
> [@vetbridge](#): > > Phenylephrine is available as a veterinary drug. I prescribe it daily, usually for its side effect of increased urinary outflow resistance. Did you find the loss of phenylpropanolamine a problem in your practice? ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meth-and-sudafed-policy-stupidity-in-the-land-of-corn/322475/67 "2005-09-22T18:35:38Z")
> [@](#): > > I think it would be quicker, easier and more sensible to make conviction on the posession of any meth at all a felony with an automatic five year sentence, and an additional five years for every gram after 1, but that’s just me. Increasing the penalties for illegal drug use has not and never will be the answer. You’ll simply fill the already overburdened prisons with more people who will learn to become hardened criminals. We’ve done that with a generation of pot users and ruined countless lives. The fact is people are going to do drugs regardless of the penalties we assign to the crime. I think it makes more sense to treat drug abuse as a disease, not a crime. If we treat people for the problem with sensical therapy and not prison you just might save a few instead of turning them into full-blown criminals. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meth-and-sudafed-policy-stupidity-in-the-land-of-corn/322475/68 "2005-09-22T19:19:37Z")
> [@Bongmaster](#): > > I think it makes more sense to treat drug abuse as a disease, not a crime. If we treat people for the problem with sensical therapy and not prison you just might save a few instead of turning them into full-blown criminals. The only thing I’d want to add here is to make sure you distinguish use from abuse. Occasional use isn’t abuse. Not everybody needs or wants treatment. ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meth-and-sudafed-policy-stupidity-in-the-land-of-corn/322475/69 "2005-09-22T19:25:26Z")
> [@Dragwyr](#): > > Crystal Meth production and use is on the rise, especially in the midwest. It is a huge problem here in Michigan. > > If legislation to make the purchase of this devistating drug’s ingredients more difficult is not the answer, what should be done to deal with the problem then? Make a cheap OTC smokeable version of Desoxyn (Methamphetamine, you know the stuff for behavioral problems and weight loss for our “sick” kids, as opposed to Methamphetamine the evil street drug with no medicinal value) and put it on the shelf between Sudafed and Marlborros. What’s the problem? ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meth-and-sudafed-policy-stupidity-in-the-land-of-corn/322475/70 "2005-09-22T20:10:29Z")
> [@vetbridge](#): > > Phenylephrine is available as a veterinary drug. I prescribe it daily, usually for its side effect of increased urinary outflow resistance. Wait, what exactly is that? Because my allergies are bad this time of year, and I’ve been on phenylephrine off and on, and a few times recently it’s been a bit hard to take a piss - as though I were experiencing “increased urinary outflow resistance.” I’m not sure if it was correlated with being on phenylephrine, but I think I’ll pay more attention to that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meth-and-sudafed-policy-stupidity-in-the-land-of-corn/322475.md?page=3)