Why don't they just take Sudafed off the market?

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NeantHumain
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06 Feb 2012, 4:35 pm

In Missouri at least, I'm pretty sure a prescription is already required for Sudafed.

blauSamstag
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06 Feb 2012, 5:06 pm

My friend who is an organic chemistry phd tells me that there are so many ways to make methamphetamines that trying to stamp out any one method of synthesis is foolishness.

He tells me that on his angrier days he's considered writing a program that generates a recipe book of all possible syntheses given a list of available precursors.

Pseudoephedrine is half way to speed already, but so is phenylephrine.

visagrunt
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07 Feb 2012, 4:06 pm

Pseudoephedrine might be a convenient precursor, but it is by no means exclusive.

A large number of jurisdictions have put restrictions on sale--generally limiting the amount that can be purchased so as to make accumulating sufficient quantity for synthesis impractical. Pseudoephedrine occurs naturally and can be extracted (though that creates cultivation problems). But frankly, if you can get water, yeast, dextrose and some pretty routinely available reagents with industrial applications, you're off to the races.

Meanwhile, salts of pseudoephidrine do have viable medical uses, they are relatively benign with few adverse reactions compared with alternatives.

If taking it off the market is going to require people to make use of less effective drugs, or drugs more susceptible to abuse; and if taking it off the market is not going to stem the mischief that you seek to stem, then the public policy question has to be, "why do it?"

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07 Feb 2012, 4:29 pm

visagrunt wrote:

To piss people like me off.

Sweetleaf
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07 Feb 2012, 4:55 pm

naturalplastic wrote:

I just took sudafed before I logged on just now- to quell my post nasal drip.

Dont take away my sudafed!! !! !

Sudafed helps with that? I might have to try it because I've had an issue with that since I was 15 and nothing thus far has helped......and then it would really suck if they made it prescription only because I can't afford that.

That aside though I do not think prohibition is the answer when it comes to drugs, all the reasons I have for that have already pretty much been covered in this thread.

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shrox
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07 Feb 2012, 5:02 pm

Meth is not ruining our country. It is destroying some people and their families. I tried it at about 25, and did not like it. Meth should be labelled toxic, and anyone addicted to it should be treated for chemical injury as well as drug addiction.

Crack did not destroy our country, it did destroy some people and their families, then the government further destroyed the person through draconian sentencing, especially if they were black.

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07 Feb 2012, 5:26 pm

OliveOilMom wrote:

AngelRho, I am not advocating taking Sudafed off the market. My point was that they talk about meth so much and have such long prison sentences for it and keep a database of who buys sudafed, etc and say that it's the number one problem in this country and claim to be fighting a war against it, so why don't they simply make it prescription? I'm wondering why they don't do that, if it's such a huge deal and they are doing so much about it, and it's ruining our country like they say, why don't they do that.

I'm talking about how all I hear is that it's the number one problem in the country. We should do something about it, etc they say. Well, I'm doing my part, I'm not cooking dope. But I'm tired of hearing them drone on and on about it, when they could cut it down an awful lot by simply making it prescription. They don't. They need to poop or get off the toilet.

They go on and on about how it's costing us all these tax dollars, but they don't do the one simple thing that would severely decrease the amount of it. That's what I'm talking about. I'm not saying we should take it off the market. I'm wondering why, since it's in their power to do that, they don't. Either it's not such a big problem, or they are getting something out of it being out there. Since I know that it is a big problem, I'd have to assume it's the latter. What that is, I don't know. That's what I want to know.

Chances are it's not such a big problem.........but they have to keep all the negative hype about drugs in general going otherwise people might start questioning the motives behind the war on drugs. and if treating non-violent drug offenders like criminals is really the way we should be doing things. I have certainly heard of people abusing meth and how horrible that can be, and I also know of people who have used but not abused meth who don't seem to have suffered any adverse effects from it.

I mean I am in Colorado, and until they legalized medical marijuana all the negative hype was about marijuana and how it was ruining everyone's lives ect. Then of course when that was legalized they switched the focus to meth I guess it's good for the cannabis consumers as the cops are now less focused on that and more focused on meth but still drugs are drugs..........they can be used appropriately or abused no matter which one it is.

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Sweetleaf
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07 Feb 2012, 5:28 pm

shrox wrote:

And according to my sociology professor, its not uncommon for the government to intentionally introduce crack into certain areas to get people hooked to justify more police funding for more action in the area or something like that.

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TeaEarlGreyHot
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07 Feb 2012, 5:32 pm

The war on drugs is a complete joke anyway.

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Sweetleaf
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07 Feb 2012, 5:59 pm

TeaEarlGreyHot wrote:

The war on drugs is a complete joke anyway.

Yes it is...and I think it might be interesting to looking into how opium for pharmaceutical opiates is acquired.

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07 Feb 2012, 6:46 pm

shrox wrote:

Meth is not ruining our country.

I'll jump on the "Meth is destroying our country" bandwagon when I start seeing PSAs featuring Pee Wee Herman explaining the dangers of Meth.

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08 Feb 2012, 4:27 pm

AngelRho wrote:

To make a drinkable product, you have to throw away several gallons to minimize the amount of methanol that comes through, which means you have to make a HUGE batch for it to be safe. Nothing ruins a good drunk like waking up blind the next day.

If you're getting a lot of methanol produced during fermentation then you're doing something seriously wrong. It's a myth that methanol is produced in any significant quantity. For the batch sizes a home moonshiner would be making you'd probably only need to discard the first few ounces of distillate (the "heads") to remove the aldehydes, esters and any lower boiling alcohols. You also want to discard the "tails" which have fusel oils and higher boiling alcohols. Often you can judge these cutoff points by watching the temperature of the distillate coming over. I think most people around here these days filter the spirits through activated charcoal to remove most junk anyway. But I'd prefer to use a decent reflux still to begin with. They're not hard to make.

Oh, and as for making Sudafed an Rx drug? It would cost me a $50 doctor bill for a $4 pack of pills. Meth would probably work out cheaper, lol.

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08 Feb 2012, 8:33 pm

Ugh I'm on it RIGHT NOW. I took one this morning because I started to get sick a few days ago and ALL day at school I was having annoying muscle spasms (especially with my neck, back, and arms) and probably looked insane. I also have an extremely fast heart beat so fast it hurts really bad. It hasn't worn off yet but all it's been doing is the awful things I described. It never unclogged my sinuses OR made me feel any better.

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08 Feb 2012, 8:39 pm

theaspiemusician wrote:

If it's putting you in to tachycardia (extremely accelerated heart beat) then be very careful. A tachycardia attack almost killed me not too long ago.

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08 Feb 2012, 8:57 pm

abacacus wrote:

theaspiemusician wrote:

If it's putting you in to tachycardia (extremely accelerated heart beat) then be very careful. A tachycardia attack almost killed me not too long ago.

What do I do to slow it down???

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08 Feb 2012, 9:23 pm

You'll be fine. Just learn from the experience, and don't do it again. And don't make things worse by drinking anything with caffeine over the next few hours. Whatever you do, DO NOT try taking anything you think might be a sedative in the hope that it will slow your heart down. Specifically, Alcohol or Dextromorphan HBr could easily turn several uncomfortable hours into several DANGEROUS hours. Why? They'll constrict your blood vessels, and might even INCREASE your heart rate. Ever notice that drunk people look flushed and get red ears? In your current state, that could actually be deadly, so don't do it.

If you have a blood pressure reader handy, go ahead and check yours. If the top number is 160 or greater, I'd recommend going to the emergency room (they'll give you IV atenolol to instantly bring your heart rate and blood pressure down to normal). If it's under 160, just chill. You'll be OK... this time. Just don't push your luck and try to pull a repeat performance someday.

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