Under the agreement, retail stores would be able to sell each customer only a single package of liquid gel capsules or liquid medicine containing pseudoephedrine in dosages under 360 milligrams – about the amount contained in children’s cold medicines. And those medicines must be kept under lock until sold. All other medicines containing the chemical would only be allowed to be sold through a pharmacy.
Iowa’s just one of many states, including Oregon, that is restricting access to completely legal over-the-counter medications containing pseudoephedrine. The ingredient is one of the main precursors in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamines, and it is a popular decongestant in such products as Sudafed.
In Oregon (as in a few other states) if you want Sudafed, you have to go to a pharmacy and get it from a pharmacist after showing your ID. One problem is that not all grocery stores have pharmacies, and most pharmacies have limited hours. I had a pretty nasty cold last winter and my wife went to the local Fred Meyer to get me some Thera-Flu. No dice, it too has pseudoephedrine, and it was 10:00 at night, so no pharmacist. That left my massive noggin utterly congested and my Irish redhead wife fuming.
The jury is still out on the effectiveness of these moves. Maybe it will reduce the number of small-time home meth labs. However I predict that it will do very little to stem the tide of meth addiction. As long as the demand exists, suppliers will capitalize on it. The labs will consolidate into larger operations and fall more into the hands of the organized crime syndicates that can handle sophisticated smuggling ventures, like getting pseudoephedrine from Mexico. Plus, there are other ways to make speed that don’t involve pseudoephedrine, and there are other drugs to ingest (Ritalin, Adderol) that give similar effects. Again, it seems like we are treating a symptom rather than the cause. Why are people doing meth in the first place?
Another thing that bugs me is that we regular citizens have to be inconvenienced because of a few speed freaks. You don’t see any measures to restrict the sale of Red Devil lye, lithium batteries, or ether-based engine cleaners, all of which are also critical pre-cursors in meth manufacture. And at least in the case of lye, you could argue that it should require some control and ID, since it is used much less often than Sudafed and is far more harmful in its natural state.
The two most societally-harmful things about meth addiction are violent thieving addicts and dangerous explosive meth labs. So what are the solutions we offer? Lock up the addicts (because prison does wonders in cleaning up addicts and making them non-violent), maintain prohibition of meth (because it jacks up the prices enough to make home labs profitable, guarantees dangerous production, impure drugs, and leaves violence as the only solution to disputes), and lock up the Sudafed (which should probably jack up the meth prices, making home labs more necessary and profitable).
Of course, there is another idea:
There is another solution to the meth lab problem, but given the overheated atmosphere surrounding the issue, no one dares speak it aloud: Make methamphetamines available through regulated commercial or medical channels to those who wish to use them. If this were to occur, home meth labs would disappear virtually overnight, as consumers seek safe, reliable outlets for the product, and the millions of non-meth users who seek Sudafed or similar products only to relieve a cold or other complaint would not be forced to ID themselves, sign registries, and end up in government databases just because they wanted a cold pill.
