That shit turned me psycho. I donate to NPR because of a story on it 20 years ago that probably saved my life.
Flonase, a nasal steroid, works some but for maximum allergy satisfaction I recommend loratadine, the generic and now OTC drug formerly known as Claritin. It’s a quarter a pill but the pill lasts 24 hours and works so well I’m almost considering getting a cat.
As an aside, when Claritin went OTC but was still extra expensive my doc asked if I wanted a scrip for Clarinex. “What’s the difference?” “Instead of lasting 24 hours it lasts 26 hours.” “Is that all? Will they do ANYTHING to keep their patent going?” “Yeah and yeah, but it might be cheaper with your prescription coverage.”
Phenylephrine is what’s in Sudafed PE.. Since I can’t take Sudafed because it tends to cause trigger arryhythmia in me, I asked the pharmacist for an alternative, and she suggested Sudafed PE. It didn’t do a damned thing at all for me, unfortunately.
[sub]But that Entex sure was good stuff. Not only a decent decongestant, but a mild bronchodilator to boot. [/sub]
*::: ponders the irony of a bunch of people who call themselves “Dopers” complaining about not being about to buy OTC drugs because of meth users ::: *
Anyway, you can’t buy Sudafed off the shelf here anymore, either. It’s all kept behind the pharmacy counter. I needed something the other day (I was at Safeway), and it was before the pharmacy opened. I couldn’t find anyone to help me, basically said the hell with it and bought Benadryl Allergy instead. It works just was well for my allergies. YMMV, of course.
::: goes back to praying to the gods of Winter. ::: *
Please! An early frost! Kill all the green growing shit!
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).
I have to have both loratadine and pseudophedrine, I’m prone to ear/sinus/respiratory infections if I don’t keep my sinuses drained. In order to get my pseudophedrine this month I did have to sign a register and show photo ID, and pay for it at the pharmacy counter. At least I was able to get the decongestant that keeps me well, I feel for the parents who only want a liquid decongestant for their child though.
Meth is HUGE among high school students. At my high school, it was sold pretty much openly in the halls and probably 1/3 of the people I knew were starting a pretty serious addiction. It’s especially popular among high school girls because when they start, they lose weight and their grades go up. They get nothing but positive reinforcement from their parents, teachers, and friends for months. Only they know the real cause behind it.
It’s pretty common for older men to court young, naive, unpopular girls in to addictions. They benefit from a steady customer and favors when allowences run out. I’ve seen it happen over and over again.
As for moonsuits- there is more than Sudafed in meth. The other chemicals are pretty easy to buy in bulk from vet supply stores and chemical warehouses. Pseudephedrine is easy to target because it’s the only one nobody would ever need mass quantities of for legit purposes. I think it’s red phosphate thats the biggest danger. Making meth requires a lot of chemical reactions- including at least one exothermic reaction that is easy to lose control of (i.e. blow up) and a lot of nasty byproducts. This is being done by amature chemists with no interest in protecting the environment or not poisening the people around them.
I note from Yahoo! Maps that Davenport, IA is about a half-hour drive from Ease Moline, IL (different state, y’see). Anybody know about how difficult the hoops are to jump through in Illinois?
It’s erratic here in the Empire State–in more drug-prone or active NYC neighborhoods (not necessarily the poorest!) Sudafed et al are sold only by the pharmacist. I’ve seen it sold like that in the Central Bronx and, oddly enough, all the drugstores in and around Grand Central Station.
OTOH, I bought a bunch at the A&P in Yonkers the other day right from the shelf (my brother has doggies I’m allergic too) and can get it at the Duane Reade here in the northern Bronx with no problems.
I get my loratidine at Sam’s- a two pack of 90 count bottles (180 pills total- a 6 month supply) costs about $15- or less than $0.09 per pill. I take it daily, except for the 3-4 weeks per year when there’s nothing I’m allergic to in the air .
Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to control the supply of say, red phosphate? In my town of 20k people, I bet I can buy pseudephedrine-containing OTC meds in at least 15 places (or at least I could, before all these new regulations). Why not try to control the hazardous, already-limited supply ingrediants?
grabs her allergy meds… yup, the clogged-nose syrup has pseudoephedrin. By prescription only, which means I pay 60% of the price and the other 40% is prepaid (Spanish Social Security pays it; since they take it from my taxes, it’s not “free” but “prepaid”).
You know, every time someone here in Spain pities me for having had to leave “that nice job in the States”, all I have to do is explain the US medical system for a bit and that cuts through the pity chop-chop.
Drug use is related directly to self-esteem and values. Self-esteem or lack thereof and your value system are acquired through education (from school, parents, tv, etc.) The same value-systems that leave politics and the money that comes with them in the hands of the vultures, slugs and vampires happens to make people a good target for dependencies of other kinds; for example, drugs. Now excuse me while I go wash my mouth for insulting slugs, vultures and vampires…
Nah, it’s pretty ubiquitous. Even if they outlawed safety matches, cookers would just switch to methods that used phosphates from fertilizer towards the same end. Chemicals are everywhere, and the most specialized chemical used to manufacture meth is pseudoephedrine.
If if pseudoephedrine were outlawed altogether, people would just start manufacturing it clandestinely. There’s no winning by trying to control the precursors – it’s stupid.
Actually…thats what I ended up doing. I bought two bottles of Simply Stuffy in a Moline Walgreens pharmacy (it was the only 2 bottles they had…and they probably won’t get more).
I felt like Smokey and the Bandit driving across the I-74 bridge with my Simply Stuffy.
Ah but the law has had its intended effect, such that there are fewer meth labs in states that have passed the law, and meth users are relying more on Mexican imports. Cite
Slight nitpick, but I believe it’s red phosphorous that was used in one meth recipe. I think trouble getting it was one of the main reasons for the shift towards anhydrous ammonia-based meth (they call it Nazi Meth here). Around here, anhydrous ammonia is the big item to get other than the pseudoephedrine. The paper always lists arrests for anhydrous ammonia theft and/or transportation.
Your cite does not support the assertion. There are less meth labs being busted in those states. I’ll bet my eye teeth that there are actually more meth “labs” now – it’s just further underground and scaled way down. Who gets busted? The organized criminals that are making huge amounts for distribution, constantly cranking out stinky fumes.
Smaller scale production is much harder to detect, unless something goes wrong. Even with the law, people can still easily acquire the precursors to make small batch cooks. A single person can legally acquire enough medication to support a habit, if they cook their dope themselves. Two boxes is enough for a small cook. Not hard to get, and enough to make a few grams of speed, which’ll keep a tweaker up for a pretty long time.
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.
