I cant believe this

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A bill is going through the Oregon State Legislature which would make cold medicines prescription-only, because they contain a chemical which is used in the manufacture of methamphetamine, which is a rampant problem here. On the surface, the benefits of this bill would seem to outweigh the inconveniences.

However, this method is utilized by the smaller labs, and this would indeed choke them off. However, there are also superlabs, which are usually run and supplied from Mexico. They would have less competition, and be able to produce more, effectively lowering the street price, and thus sucking off more money to south of the border.

Yeah, thanks a lot. you're going to lower the price of meth by an order of magnitude, while rasing the price of cold medicines by an OoM, because they're prescription. This would be a good idea if we addressed the whiole picture and put in tighter border security, but the Bush regime has been resistant to that.

That's just lazy! Rather than trying to logically fix the solution they'd do something drastic that can ruin small businesses and make it harder for the poor people to remain healthy and be able to afford medicine. Isn't there a better thing to do?

Make methamphetamine manufacture a capitol offense.

has tightening the screws really done that much to stop drug use?

That is unfair, and the reason why is self explanatory!

You know, I always thought that was a good idea, but after reading that, it doesn't sound like a good solution at all, and that's too bad. I think the only real way you can stop the processes of drug manufacturing and drug trafficking is if you stop the demand for drugs, but that's extrememly difficult to do. I don't understand why anyone would want to do that stuff, it's horrible. Maybe if more people were made explicitly aware of the extreme dangers as well as all the awful chemicals they use to make it.

Don't forget: Narcotics trafficking, Narcotics production, sex crimes, and promoting gang activity.

Reduction of competition rarely results in lower prices. If anything prices would go up because of less low-cost meth on the street and a greater demand because that additional input is no longer there.

This law seems to be like trying to kill a fly with a shotgun: you change the whole landscape, make a lot of noise and chaos, but the fly is still there.

UGH!

SpaceCase

Who actually needs more than one order of cold medicine at a time??? Why not limit the sale amount even more? And also maybe have some computer system where you show your ID and then the next store can see if you've bought any and where.

Don't know if that is practical, but... just an idea.

That makes sense.

Quoted, for those who have her on ignore.

Isn't that the nature of modern politics? A lawmaker saying "Look at me! I sponsored a BIG bill that solved a BIG problem. Vote for me in the next election." So we have BIGGER government to fix a small problem. And most new laws don't really solve problems because you need to address the problem proactively to do that. But being proactive doesn't win elections.

It would also help to have a rational drug policy. If the USA legalized and taxed marijuana about 90% of the drug-related problems (such as violent crimes) would simply go away because people would buy legal drugs through approved channels rather than supporting the biker gangs and drug cartels. The government would be able to take some of the police from marijuana enforcement and assign them to real crimes. The tax revenue would pay for the bureaucracy with enough left over to cover health care. I think it would also generally reduce the acceptance of harder drugs. Right now, someone who smokes marijuana has little reason not to try harder stuff because they're *already* criminals and the legal consequences of posession of cocaine versus posession of marijuana are about the same. If marijuana was legal then a lot of people would stay with it just to stay on the right side of the law.

In any case, the marijuana prohibition has a long history of irrationality. It was banned in Canada *by mistake*, and was on the books for years before anyone even knew it. Most people who have looked into the origins of the ban in the USA are aware that it was driven by racism and ignorance.

Pseudophedrine Hydrochloride is the chemical you are referring to. The Ephedrine (basically an herbal extract) is what is used to manufacture the meth. Many OTC meds have started using Phenylephrine Hydrochloride instead, which in my experience (major sinus problems) is not nearly as effective and it is getting harder for me to find sinus meds with Pseudophedrine Hydrochloride (Sudafed). The FDA has been getting stricter on anything containing Ephedrine, not only because of meth, but also because it can have dangerous side effects.

The reason Ephedrine is illegal is because it is an herbal supplement and the FDA is eager to do the bidding of their corporate masters who want to see herbal supplments banned so consumers are forced to use their pseudoephedra type alternatives which don't work near as well and can be used to make meth.