The Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 makes it so a person can purchase only 9 grams of pseudoephedrine in a one month period, I could be a little off. It also pretty much puts your name in a national registry for big brother whenever you buy Sudafed or similar drugs to help you.
Well, since this has been in effect almost three years, has Crystal Meth use and illegal production gone down at all? In other words, is this law working or not? If I overlooked somewhere that states this data, I apologize.
Good question. This should answer a lot of it. http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs11/18862/meth.htm
In a nutshell: US production is down with the law being credited for part of it.
Usage is up and Mexico is making up for most of the lost domestic production.
BTW: I find the law very annoying. I use Advil Cold & Sinus as the allergy product that works best for my sinus problems. The current restrictions is annoying and seems silly as the data is going into paper log books and not a database for easy usage.
The laws were most effective at eliminating/reducing small production facilities. This was in itself a good thing in many ways, regardless of the effect on usages, since the labs were a hazard for local law enforcement and public safety folks. The small, home-based labs also put children and neighbors at risk from explosions and chemical fires. The state-level laws that preceded the CME Act where very effective at driving production at least out of state, which was understandably appealing to voters in the state with the law–they didn’t have to increase police and firefighter staffing to deal with the labs. Now its more of a macro scale, with Mexico playing the role of a neighboring state.
I imagine the logging is much more of a deterrant than an actual tracking mechanism. Before, there was really nothing to stop someone from going in and anonymously buying out a Sam’s Club’s supply of Sudafed. Even if the store clerk was :dubious: , there was really no reason for him to take any action.
Although I too have found the law annoying, I accept it because I can see the case for making my state/country less hospitable to meth labs. If I call 911 for something, I want them to come help me, not be busy with some chemistry experiment gone way wrong.
I get my pseudoephedrine for the pharmacy at my Medical Co-op. I pick some up when I’m filling my other 'scripts.
On Thursday I went to pick up some other stuff, so I asked for another pack of it. I mentioned to the pharmacist that my husband used it more often than I did. He then said he couldn’t sell it to me, since my husband had picked some up only 15 days before. I was :eek: . I told him that hubby kept some at work, so this one would be mainly for me. He did sell it to me, but sheesh.
I wish I’d had the information about the limit being 9 grams a month, because the amount in question was only 3 grams.
I hate being made to feel like a criminal just because I have a stuffy nose.
Locally we’ve seen a drastic drop in the number of meth labs. However, that just means more is being imported into the area. I doubt use itself has gone down much, if at all.
And the meth users will always try something new to keep up. The latest is “urine-extraction” labs. Apparently most of the meth ingested is passed out through the urine, so some cooks are requiring their customers to save their urine. They then process this to extract the meth and resell it.
Also, they’re hugely toxic. Bad for kids (in my state, it’s child abuse to have a child in a building where meth is manufactured) and others. There are houses within a mile of me that are boarded up and legally unrentable because meth was manufactured in them.
We do. It was on my account. I just mentioned, in passing that we both use it. He then took it upon himself to look up my husband’s account.
I sent an e-mail to the pharmacy director asking if their policy was different than the federal regulation.
The thing is, even if the limit is per household, we were well within that limit. One box equals 3 grams, so two boxes in a month isn’t unreasonable.
