Momentum builds in Indiana to ban over-the-counter Sudafed

[Newsjock]

Source: Terre Haute Tribune-Star

Failed attempts to shut down illegal methamphetamine labs are sparking renewed efforts to require prescriptions for popular cold remedies and decongestants such as Sudafed.

Electronic tracking of over-the-counter cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine – the crucial ingredient in methamphetamine – hasn’t stopped the spread of meth labs as predicted. Last year, despite an electronic tracking system, Indiana led the nation in meth lab seizures, according to federal and state data.

“This is one of the worst drugs ever created. It’s so addictive and so dangerous to make,” said Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett, whose community once topped the state for meth-lab busts.

The surge in illicit labs – up almost 30 percent since the tracking system went in place in 2012 – is prompting some lawmakers to support a prescription measure that Bennett supports, along with and a growing number of mayors, public safety officials and health experts.

Read more: http://www.tribstar.com/news/local_news/momentum-builds-to-stop-over-the-counter-sales/article_b824f3b4-2ea7-53b0-8160-035b995d496b.html

[hobbit709]

1. Anyone making quantities of meth isn't wasting their time buying a few boxes of Sudafed at a time

[JonLP24]

2. Cartel superlabs is where the majority of the supply comes from

Also methlyamine is fairly easy to make and necessary products arouse less suspicion.

[liberal N proud]

3. Isn't that the case most everywhere else?

I know buying most any cold medications, you have to go to the counter.

[JonLP24]

7. Yes

Based on the meth combat act which is a provision of the Patriot Act.

Though I think Indiana wants an outright ban rather than just a limit and purchase tracker.

[blue neen]

14. It seems that what they really want to do is require a prescription

from a Doctor, not an outright ban. They may take it off the market for a few months until they can get the legislation through requiring the script and also making pseudoephedrine a controlled substance.

IMHO, it won't really do anything to stop the manufacturing of crystal meth.

[JonLP24]

15. I figured that the be the case

Same is true for meth itself -- Desoxyn.

[RobinA]

17. Oh Please, No

No taking it off the market, no prescription. I already live half my life with a headache, don't take my Sudafed.

[blue neen]

21. Yep, it's ridiculous.

The people who are not abusing the drugs are the ones who will suffer.

[City Lights]

13. Only since the "Patriot" Act was rammed through.

Any cold medicine with a decongestant is now kept behind the counter. You have to show an ID to buy it, and they log you in their system to make sure you're not buying more than allowed within a specified time period.

Sounds like Indiana wants to make it Rx only.

[bravenak]

4. Why would anyone bother buying boxes of Sudafed?

I'm no chemist, but I am sure there is another way besides using sudafed. Most people buying sudafed have stuffy noses, not meth habits.

[Phentex]

12. That's what the pharmacist said too...

I had to show id and register that I was buying 24 pills (or less, I can't recall). When I asked about the hullabaloo, he said it would take thousands of pills to matter but I guess they track someone who might be traveling around the state buying 24 pills at a time.

[snooper2]

5. So since this primarily affects poor white people, has anybody done a CIA conspiracy yet?

Like with crack?

[JonLP24]

8. The CIA conspiracy with crack was very real

On April 17, 1986, the Reagan Administration released a three-page report acknowledging that there were some Contra-cocaine connections in 1984 and 1985, arguing that these connections occurred at a time when the rebels were "particularly hard pressed for financial support" because U.S. aid had been cut off. The report admitted that "We have evidence of a limited number of incidents in which known drug traffickers have tried to establish connections with Nicaraguan resistance groups." The report tried to downplay the drug activity, claiming that it took place "without the authorization of resistance leaders."[8]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_and_Contras_cocaine_trafficking_in_the_US#Reagan_Administration_admits_Contra-cocaine_connections

Ross's capture was facilitated by his main source, drug lord Oscar Danilo Blandón, who set up Ross. Blandón had close ties with the Contras, and had met with Contra leader Enrique Bermúdez on several occasions. Blandón was the link between the CIA and Contras during the Iran-Contra affair. Gary Webb interviewed Ross several times before breaking the story in 1996. Ross claims that the reason he was unfairly tried initially was because of his involvement in the scandal. Blandón received a 24-month sentence for his drug trafficking charges, and following his release, was hired by the Drug Enforcement Administration where he was salaried at US$42,000. The INS was ordered to grant Blandón a green card, despite the criminal convictions, to allow him to work for the DEA. The DEA has claimed they no longer employ Blandón, and his whereabouts are unknown.[17]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Freeway%22_Rick_Ross

[snooper2]

9. I'm sure the CIA made money off drugs- The extreme is saying it was developed to specifically target

black communities ....


It was all about money-

[JonLP24]

10. They certainly were aware of it

the cocaine being brought into the LA neighborhoods to finance a war for the CIA-backed rebels.

But why -- of all the ethnic and racial groups in California to pick from -- crack planted its deadly roots in L.A.'s black neighborhoods is something only Oscar Danilo Blandon Reyes can say for sure.

Danilo Blandon, a yearlong Mercury News investigation found, is the Johnny Appleseed of crack in California -- the Crips' and Bloods' first direct-connect to the cocaine cartels of Colombia. The tons of cut-rate cocaine he brought into black L.A. during the 1980s and early 1990s became millions of rocks of crack, which spawned new crack markets wherever they landed.

On a tape made by the Drug Enforcement Administration in July 1990, Blandon casually explained the flood of cocaine that coursed through the streets of South-Central Los Angeles during the previous decade.
''These people have been working with me 10 years,'' Blandon said. ''I've sold them about 2,000 or 4,000 (kilos). I don't know. I don't remember how many.''

''It ain't that Japanese guy you were talking about, is it?'' asked DEA informant John Arman, who was wearing a hidden transmitter.

''No, it's not him,'' Blandon insisted. ''These ... these are the black people.''

Arman gasped. ''Black?!''

''Yeah,'' Blandon said. ''They control L.A. The people (black cocaine dealers) that control L.A.''

U.S. has paid Blandon more than $166,000
But unlike the thousands of young blacks now serving long federal prison sentences for selling mere handfuls of the drug, Blandon is a free man today. He has a spacious new home in Nicaragua and a business exporting precious woods, courtesy of the U.S. government, which has paid him more than $166,000 over the past 18 months, records show -- for his help in the war on drugs.

That turn of events both amuses and angers ''Freeway Rick'' Ross, L.A.'s premier crack wholesaler during much of the 1980s and Danilo Blandon's biggest customer.

''They say I sold dope everywhere but, man, I know he done sold 10 times more dope than me,'' Ross said with a laugh during a recent interview.

Nothing epitomizes the drug war's uneven impact on black Americans more clearly than the intertwined lives of Ricky Donnell Ross, a high school dropout, and his suave cocaine supplier, Danilo Blandon, who has a master's degree in marketing and was one of the top civilian leaders in California of an anti-communist guerrilla army formed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Called the Fuerza Democratica Nicaraguense (FDN), it became known to most Americans as the Contras.

http://www.narconews.com/darkalliance/drugs/start.htm

[dembotoz]

6. and watch the price go up

[JVS]

11. They should legalize it. It would improve the quality of the drug and clear up many side effects.

[Sheldon Cooper]

16. Watch for train robberies to increase in Indiana.

[davidn3600]

18. So a tiny number of people misuse the drug, and so now everyone has to suffer

Im so sick of this kind of shit.

[Dreamer Tatum]

19. I sure am glad Breaking Bad made meth so damned funny.

I thought it completely destroyed people until I saw all the good Breaking bad jokes.


TV: is there anything it CAN'T do?

[Comrade Grumpy]

20. I have a generic name for such laws: The Mexican Methamphetamine Market Share Enhancement Act.