Edwards Calls for Crackdown on Meth Labs

[Khephra]

WASHINGTON -- Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards called Monday for tighter restrictions on the sale of nonprescription cold medicines that could be used to make methamphetamine.

"It's part of our plan to deal with what we see as a cancer on rural America, which are these methamphetamine labs and the impact that methamphetamine has had on so many families in rural America," Edwards told reporters in a telephone conference as he campaigned in Newton, Iowa.

The North Carolina senator cited a 79 percent increase in the number of illegal meth labs that have been discovered since President Bush took office in January 2001. He also criticized the Bush administration for trying to cut law enforcement programs that fight trafficking in the Midwest of the addictive, illegal stimulant.

Authorities say meth addiction is a growing problem because it is easy to make with household chemicals and over-the-counter cold medicines. The epidemic is spreading quickly, particularly in rural areas like southern Missouri, which shut down nearly 3,000 meth labs last year, more than any other state.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-edwards-meth,0,600585.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. And let's be sure B*sh isn't tweaking

for the last debate.

[leftistagitator]

2. That really sucks...

Ephedrine based drugs work really well for me when my sinus's flair up or I get a cold. I was never much for ephedra, but don't criminalize my cold medicine. Plus, I don't like calls for increasing drug enforcement agency budgets. Whoever it was who first decided that people ought not to be free to determine what substances enter their own bodies should have been publicly executed. I knew Kerry could not push toward legalization, but I had kind of hoped that funding of the agencies could be dried up quietly like Bush does for woman's health centers.

[MrTriumph]

3. It is our business

It is our business- that's why we legislate and enforce drug laws.

When it comes to meth addicts, they become paranoid and often violent. They are a tremendous burden to their families and create chaos. Meth use is not a victim-less crime.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. You are right

I generally favor legalization of drugs, especially of marijuana. But meth is another story entirely. It really makes people crazy. We knew a guy who went from family man to crazed lunatic wife beater in about 6 months. He was shot to death by the cops in front of his kids when he pulled a gun on a cop who came to his house on a domestic violence call. His kids had called as he was beating on his wife. And seriously, this guy was a really nice guy. He just went nuts after months of meth use.

I have a friend who lives in a rural area and they have been inundated with meth labs. The meth cookers often keep exotic animals as pets. A tiger got loose last year and terrorized the small town where its owner lived.

Meth users are not playing with a full deck. They are dangerous and as the other poster said, this is really not a victimless crime.

[MissB]

4. Our governor just signed off on legislation that requires

people to show ID in order to obtain Sudafed and the like. Eventually, there will be a computer database to track the numbers of ephedrine purchases.

Our newspaper ran a series that concluded on Sunday on ephedrine. One of the articles discussed how Oklahoma (I think, iirc) dealt with the problem. They had one small city where the small stores- the quick marts and the gas stations - were selling the equivalent of 10,000 pills per capita per month. Clearly the town wasn't suffering from that many severe colds.

I don't have a problem with restrictions on how much of it I can buy each month. It seems like a fairly reasonable amount.

The drug that the ephedrine gets turned into - meth- is highly addictive. It is hard to treat the addicts.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. What I have never understood

is the risk these people take when cooking meth. How can you chance blowing up your house just to make a buck selling drugs?

And the kids who live in these houses! Talk about sad. They come to school stinking of meth chemicals. The smell is like cat pee and it won't wash out of their clothes.

[kodi]

9. sorry, man, edwards is right. meth is a real problem in these parts

worse than smack, coke, and weed put together. when i sub at the local high school i can tell that some of the kids are doing it and they talk openly to me about how easy it is to score some.

nasty shit. i'd rather see them smoking weed than doing speed.

i spent 4 years in hell a married to a heroin addict. there are some drugs i am adamantely against seeing legalized.

[AP]

6. That's talk that small towns like to hear.

[meow2u3]

8. How will the freepers spin this?

Most likely, they'll whine about how Edwards is taking their drug of choice away.

[nayt]

10. sucks

i work at the grocery store and we can't sell more than two items on the list of meth ingredients on one order. no one ever understands why.