ABC just showed how Oregon is fighting meth...

[Archae]

And it looks like it's working.

People need a prescription to get cold medicine.

I don't see really any problem with this.
There are cold medicines available OTC that aren't used by meth cookers.

[NashVegas]

1. Decent Jobs Would Be a Better Solution

[Archae]

3. People even with decent jobs use meth.

Meth is simply dangerous.

Dangerous to make, dangerous to use.

[Renew Deal]

32. Yes, because we know that people with decent jobs don't do drugs

:shrug:

[LynneSin]

42. That's right - people who have jobs never had drug addictions

:eyes:

[NightWatcher]

2. prescription= dr. office visit= lots more money out of pocket

I use sudafed and advil allergy a few weeks out of every year and I am damn sick of having to cough up my driver's license at the window each time I need medicine.

[LynneSin]

43. Yes because your cold is way more important than curbing this horrible addiction

and even though alot of Meth is imported up from Mexico, heck let's just give folks easy rights to build their own toxic, explosive meth lab that turns any given home into a superfund site

:eyes:

So they take my driver's licence - big whoop. I make sure when I do get the D brands I buy the largest box possible so I don't have to do it that often.

[fujiyama]

4. It's a pain in the ass to get decongestants with pseudoephedrine in OR

If I want pseudoephedrine, I have to go to a primary care physician, to whom I have to pay a huge co-pay - all for a drug I know I should be able to get OTC? Hell, in my case I'm not insured, so it would be an even bigger hassle.

In MI we have to show our driver's license and sign a form. It's also a pain, but less bothersome than going to a doctor for something as simple as decongestants (granted the newer Sudafed doesn't have the "d", but it's effectiveness is questionable).

[Warpy]

12. We just need to get it from behind a counter here in NM

and we're limited to a box per customer. That's caused the meth labs to move south into Mexico, where they just import the stuff in bulk straight from India.

It's why the Mexican drug war turned so ugly so suddenly: meth.

[Kali]

23. yep

war ALWAYS means escalation
and it rarely works (for it's claimed purposes, anyway)

[madokie]

5. Oklahoma was the first state to do this several years ago

and it pretty much shut down the illegal labs up to the shake and bake process hit the scene about a year ago and now we're finding the cookers pretty regularly again. Meth is a hideous drug and should be stopped whatever it takes to do that. Oregon is following our lead on this

[izquierdista]

19. You can't "stop" a drug

You have to stop people from misusing it to ruin their lives.

[John Q. Citizen]

45. Actually you can. You can stop drugs which rely on industrial synthetic processes to make.

It's impossible to stop drugs that are plant derived, but there is a very real case of a drug being stopped that had an industrial process required to produce the base elements to make the drug.

In the late 1970s and the 1980 Quaaludes were everywhere, very popular as just a recreational downer, or for a sleeping aid after over indulging in cocaine.

Some guy in the DEA figured out that the base chemicals required for making Quaaludes were produced by just a few factories world wide. The base for Quaaludes was a little used anti-malarial drug these 4 factorires produced.

The DEA got the factories to quit producing the base components and Quaaludes dried up completely in about 3 months time, never to be seen or heard of again.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

46. Quaaludes are coming back in Africa

being the preferred hard drug of South African white trash, although they typically smoke it with weed or tobacco.

[Nicole]

26. Not exactly

You don't need a prescription to purchase the cold meds in Oklahoma. They are kept behind the counter though. You have to show photo ID & sign a logbook for each purchase of cold meds that contain pseudoephedrine.

You are also limited in the amount & how often you can purchase them. That's why the shake & bake process has taken off, they use a lesser amount of pseudoephedrine for each batch.

[madokie]

28. Thats sounds more like it

my bad, I didn't realize that here you don't have to have a prescription from a doctor. Our state was the first to take the steps that you said and it helped for a while until this new method came about. Meth ruins lives and not just the people who are doing it but the whole family and sometimes friends.

[baldguy]

6. And if tomorrow some fool discovers a way to use sugar to make a deadly drug

that happens to get people high?

The simple fact is pseudoephedrine works, and there are literally no other OTC meds that work for some people.

[John Q. Citizen]

8. You bet sugar was restricted during prohibition. It is the building block of alcohol

after all.

[ThomWV]

36. It still is - go out and try to buy a ton of sugar and see how long it takes the ATF to find you.

Stills still exist.

[Archae]

All sorts of stuff get people high.

Canned air.

Spray paint.

Cough syrup.

Etc...

People who are sick can get relief, it just takes a little time.

[Ex Lurker]

17. I had to show my ID to buy a roll of duct tape the other day

the clerk said kids scrape the adhesive off and sniff it.

[Capn Sunshine]

27. really?

I'll have to check that out

[sendero]

7. It has limited usefulness..

... you act as if all or probably even most meth is home cooked in the states. I doubt it, it now comes mostly from Mexico.

[Mojambo]

9. Great. Make it harder for people who can't see a doctor to get relief from cold symptoms

These are the same people who don't get to stay home from work when they are sick.

I guess it would depend on the efficacy of the cold medicines that they do allow to be OTC. In my experience the ones without PSE are pretty shit.

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. +5

[Political Heretic]

11. Dealing with our poverty, our #1 in the nation homelessness, and our #2 unemployment would help.

But the restrictions have some limited usefulness I guess. I really haven't seen studies on the effect of the restrictions.

[rucky]

13. Sinus Rinse is the only thing that works on colds, anyways. nt

[pansypoo53219]

14. used to have to sign my name + such to get hay fever meds in milw, WI

but then i discovered a better remedy. local honey during winter.

[Imajika]

15. I hate this...

..and all I have to do is go to the Pharmacy and give them my ID.

I can only imagine how horrible it would be to HAVE to go to a damn doctor just to get a prescription for some cold/allergy medicine.

I see nothing good about this.

Also, what an effing racket. A doctor makes 100 bucks of your hard earned money just by spending 10 seconds with you and writing a prescription for cold medicine? What a scam.

Terrible idea.

[LWolf]

18. There are over-the-counter cold medicines

that aren't used to make meth. I just picked up some today, here in Oregon.

I normally don't use anything for a cold; I get them rarely, and they are usually mild.

This one, though, is kicking my ass, so I went into town and picked up some stuff. It's already helping.

Meth production, sales, and use is a real problem in my area. I teach kids whose parents get busted for making, selling, and using. I'm fine with keeping ingredients off the market.

[SharonAnn]

25. Yes, but those don't work well for me. Pseudoephedrine is what works.

[Lagomorph]

29. Agreed.

It's the only thing to have during allergy season. My wife and I go sign for our 20 pack of 12 hour tablets every ten days.

[LWolf]

41. I'm sorry about that.

And glad that you can still get what you need, if what you need is something more extreme than the norm.

I just don't want local meth producers to have access as well. Their kids' and neighbors' lives are important, too.

[customerserviceguy]

16. Since a very high proportion of Oregon's population

lives within an hour of the Washington, Idaho, and California borders, my guess is that the meth makers are just going across state lines to get their raw ingredients.

[depakid]

20. Trouble with that is- the data shows otherwise

What Oregon is getting instead is meth from Mexico.

[customerserviceguy]

22. There are loads of connections

between the small rural jobless communities where meth is the biggest problem, and farm workers from Mexico, documented or not. I know, I used to live in a few of those communities, only on the WA side of the border. What you say does not surprise me.

[LeftyMom]

21. The other OTC allergy meds don't work for shit, and that PE stuff in cold meds is useless.

This is just another way to fuck over anybody who hasn't got money. Anybody who isn't able to waste time and money to see a doctor in order to get a safe medication has to suffer, and in the meantime meth users and cooks have no problem importing either the components or the finished product.

[eShirl]

37. probably cheaper to grow our own ephedra from seed in pots, for tea

http://www.horizonherbs.com/product.asp?specific=564

http://companionplants.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1043

[pitohui]

49. nasty stuff, definitely not recommended

in the days when i had no doctor or health care and my allergies raged out of control i tried everything, and ephedra has to rank v. high on the list of the nastiest thing i ever tried

i think it will give you a heart attack long before it cures your hay fever or your cold symptoms

and it tastes bad too

[jmowreader]

24. The first tweaker who really knows chemistry is going to destroy America

I have recently learned you can make amphetamine out of phenylalanine, and the easiest way to make meth is by methylating amphetamine. (No one does it that way because amphetamine itself is a controlled substance, but it's apparently the simplest reaction and requires the smallest amount of hazmat.

The problem we all face is that the only difference between amphetamine and phenylalanine is at the right end of the amino chain: phenylalanine carries a carboxyl group (COOH) there, and amphetamine has a methyl (CH3) group. By using catalysts and reagents that are not hard to find, you can strip the oxygen and the hydroxide group off that last carbon, introduce three hydrogen atoms, and wind up with perfectly serviceable amphetamine...which can then be methylated to produce methamphetamine using only slightly more exotic reagents.

Now for extra entertainment: because phenylalanine is an animo acid bodybuilders use, you can go into any vitamin store in the country and buy all the phenylalanine you want.

[City of Mills]

33. ...Walter White? Is that you?

}(

[hobbit709]

30. You're going to need more than one box of antihistamine at a time

if you're cooking meth. This just fucks with people who have a legitimate need for the medication. I'm willing to bet money that there are plenty of speed labs in Oregon. All this might do is slow down some of the small-time amateurs.

[jmowreader]

44. And why the hell would you BUY more than one box of antihistamine?

One thing I've never really understood about this is, why would the meth lab operators want to waste their time with cold tablets? As long as you're violating federal laws ANYWAY, why not just break into pharmacies in small towns and steal all the prescription drugs?

[JNelson6563]

31. You must have insurance

Just an FYI, there are a lot of us out here who don't have a doctor, don't have insurance and can barely afford OTC meds, much less an office visit and a script.

I always shake my head in disbelief when I see such posts here. "No problem, just go to the doctor." Yeah, no problem.

Oy.

[TorchTheWitch]

34. by the time you get a dr's appt. the cold is over anyway

Just go to the doctor - pfffftttt. Even for those that can afford to go to the doctor and can take time from work to go can't get an appointment to see the doctor before the cold is already overwith anyway.

[ThomWV]

35. I could catch and cure myself of 3 Colds faster than I could see a doctor

And for the pirce of a doctor's visit I could buy every cold pill on earth.

[mucifer]

38. They do it here in IL also. I thought it was a national law.

[recoveringrepublican]

39. Great, so now I would have to pay an extra $15/co-pay, yeah, great idea. This won't help at all

those meds are already behind the counter at the pharmacies here in FL. How would this help here?

I love my nyquil when I am sick. It is the only way I get decent sleep.

[NuttyFluffers]

40. legalize, regulate, rehabilitate. my standard for any drug problem.

can't fight human desire for pleasure, particularly in the face of pain/poverty. so might as well legalize it, regulate it, make it cheap but not too dangerous (place in a controlled setting if necessary), and offer rehabilitation to anyone who gets tired of their new all consuming habit.

it takes the illicit coolness away, deprives the drug economy, doesn't waste resources in incarceration, puts out relatively controlled and safer product, and helps people with the choice to regain their lives once they get tired of any rut they are in.

but this would also expect a society that believes in universal health care, including mental health, as a reality. so in essence, an impossibility in backassward America...

[pitohui]

47. it doesn't help, it isn't working, and you have bad information

just a godawful post all around, people don't need a Rx to get cold medicine, they DO have to show ID and they DO have to buy restricted quantities - but they don't need an RX and a doctor couldn't DX a cold anyway, by the time the lab work comes back, a true cold is over

the result is that you have created a new class of drug millionaires in mexico where all the profit from the meth production is going, and as they fight over distribution networks, they are gunning down hundreds, if not thousands, of living breathing human beings, many of them police officers, soldiers, and even american tourists who happen to be innocent by standers in northern mexico

IT'S A GLOBAL PLANET AND PRETENDING TO BAN A DRUG BUSINESS IN YOUR HOME TOWN SIMPLY SWITCHES THE PRODUCTION ELSEWHERE -- you claim to be teaching meth addict's kids, well, haven't you noticed that they are STILL meth addicts?

it isn't working and no one thinks it's working, meth is growing all over the country, it's bigger and more profitable than ever since the restrictions

all the restrictions did was give more publicity in the media to "meth" so the usual crackheads now know what the new cool thing is (even tho we had meth in the 70s so i don't know what the hell is so new and cool abt it, other than media hysteria)

[Nicole]

50. You have bad information

The OP is correct, you do need a prescription to buy cold medicine in Oregon.

Oklahoma started this with a law like you posted, limited amounts sold after showing ID. Which is federal law now.
Oregon then passed a law requiring prescriptions for the same meds. I think a couple of other states may have as well.

[Skip Intro]

48. Makes as much sense being licensed to own a steak knife because some people use them as weapons.

Overkill, probably unconstitutional.

I support getting meth out of the hands of addicts (though I reserve the right to try some if I choose). And I support all efforts to educate the public about proper uses and potential dangers of misuse of cold medicines. But I don't support the government making for me decisions I should be able to make for myself.