Tonight's flamebait debate: Sudafed meth law

[LoZoccolo]

Poll question: Tonight's flamebait debate: Sudafed meth law

In Illinois there's a new law restricting Sudafed sales such that you can only buy two boxes at a time, plus Walgreen's is putting them behind glass with a security camera.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/121404_ns_meth.html

Would this make you feel like a criminal junkie-type just for buying Sudafed? What should be done about it?

[Ediacara]

1. I worked at a grocery store

And instead of having them behind glass, on the shelves we had laminated cards. You give the checker the card and we'd go up to the customer service counter and get the sudafed from a drawer.

I think the law is good, the cameras and locked case is silly.

[Pirate Smile]

2. Target only lets you buy two products at a time with whatever it

is they use out of it to make meth.

One time everyone in the house was sick with a cold and we needed medicine. I needed infant dosages, my 6 year-old will only take liquid, my son will only take the pills and my husband and I needed both the non-drowsy and nighttime medicine. What a nightmare!

[laheina]

21. I was behind a guy at Target once

who was having this problem. He had 4 different kinds of cold meds: Nyquil, sudafed, Theraflu, and kids cough syrup. They would only let him buy two, which seemed kind of stupid.

However, I live in Cali, and we've had this law for a while. We have a huge meth problem, but the law seems to have helped a lot.

[Pirate Smile]

29. I wasn't out of absolutely everything so I just bought the two I

needed the most, knowing, of course, I would have to go buy more the next day since I couldn't get it all at once.

[laheina]

35. At the time I did feel bad for the guy.

It was obvious that he didn't feel well, and that the whole family was down.

I had never seen a store be that strict about it before.

[jeff30997]

3. What ? You can't buy more than 2 boxes of Sudafed...

But you can buy enough guns and ammo to equip a small army ? :silly:

[Ediacara]

6. The law is actually THREE boxes

and it's a federal law. Many stores (including Target and aparently Walgreens) seem to think that 2=3 though....

[SW FL Dem]

9. Are you sure? - the last time I checked

I was told it was a request from law enforcement agencies to pharmacies. This was probably 8 years ago. What bugs me is that many pharmacies apply the rule to any product that contains pseudoephedrine even though the combination products can't be separated and therefore can't be used to make meth.

[Pirate Smile]

25. Target's 2 products rule is just their company policy.

[Deja Q]

4. So how does one make meth from sudafed?

Not that I'd care, I can't take sudafed anyway. :crazy:

[laheina]

22. Something about

Grinding it up, and then using chemicals and heat to burn off the stuff that isn't amphetamine. I know that one of things that they put in it is acetone, and it's all really stinky and combustible.

[Pirate Smile]

30. Yep, you hear of fires in places that were trying to make it.

[laheina]

33. Fires and explosions. nt

[nini]

5. you can't buy more than two bottles of nyquil at a time either

guess teens love the stuff. I have NO idea why :eyes:

[donheld]

7. This law has my support

I know too many kids on Crystal Meth. If you can't survive with 2 boxes see a doctor. That law is old news in Colorado.

[slutticus]

8. Why would I go to the supermarket when I can just get it on eBay?

http://search.ebay.com/sudafed_W0QQsonewuserZ1QQsosortpropertyZ1

Plus, If I wanted a hit of crank, I would just stroll over to my friendly neighborhood dealer! Why go through all the trouble?

[laheina]

23. And the dealer...

...goes out to his garage and opens up a box of Sudafed...

[Kat45]

10. The one time I ever took Sudafed, I felt like I was on speed.

So it doesn't surprise me that it can be used to make meth. But why would anyone want to put a drug into his body that is made with drain cleaner? <cringe>

[ragin_acadian]

13. i posted this on another thread

but meth is made from sulpher from matchstick heads, sudafed, and the alkaline from batteries - i think that vicks vapo rub might also be an ingredient....eh, i'm from FL. i think meth is one of our top ten exports to Alabama. you can't live in the panhandle without knowing a tweaker somehow. even if you live in a gated community, i'm sure some meth freak has worked on your house.

so knowing the current composition of garden variety meth, does anyone else wonder about how many different ingredients in combinations that the original meth inventor went through to to get to the current recipe?

eggshells...motor oil. distilled cardboard glue, old spice, woolite....the possibilities are endless.

maybe we should start our own thread on possible new meth ingredients, just so some trailerpark freeper lurking here can start experimenting on a new recipe?

anyone game? i'm up to 98 posts, isn't it about time i start a thread?

[Kali]

19. soap is made from "drain cleaner"

[SW FL Dem]

11. I think the law is too broad

It is applied in many states to any medicine containing pseudoephedrine, even though those combination products can't be used to make meth. My family all has bad allergies and we all take a 12 hour combo product twice a day, 7 days a week during allergy season, which in Florida is pretty much all year if you are allergic to mold and mildew. Our local Costco limits us to 1 package of 30 pills at a time. That lasts us less than a week. I'd buy it at the grocery, but they charge twice as much for the stuff. It's a real pain to have to go to Costco every 4 or 5 days to get the medicine we need to breathe.

[sariku]

12. It's an interesting way to tackle the problem

But I wonder how well it will (or does) work? Heh, I realize that as I'm questioning this I'm sitting in my computer room with one eye out the window on the drug traffic up the alley next to my house. They're all tweakers.

[HEyHEY]

14. If it makes you feel like a junkie you've got your own issues

[Baja Margie]

15. I support the law,

and if you lived around a bunch of meth labs you might too.


Anyway, sudafed sucks, make some chicken soup and drink lemon juice.

[Kali]

16. I was on a jury that convicted

a woman for possession - and the rule was 4 boxes (she had dozens in the trunk of her car), but it was in conjunction with other paraphernalia. It was complicated and kind of pissed me off because I have allergies and I am sure I have bought more than 4 boxes when it was on sale. Yep its the main ingredient for making meth and I'm not sure this is the way to solve that problem but it sure is a big one.

[AlienGirl]

17. What's funny is the genuine ephedrine products aren't locked up

The Sudafed is behind glass but the ephedrine/guaifenesin pills aren't.

I think it's rather silly, because people making meth aren't going to the hassle of legally buying Sudafed anyway. It just makes more work for the store employees.

Tucker (who works at Walgreens)

[laheina]

27. Can't sell ephedrine in CA. nt

[AlienGirl]

28. No Primatene or Bronk-Aid tablets?!

[laheina]

32. I don't even know what those are

Sorry, maybe I'm wrong. I used to take a supplement with ephedrine in it. It was good stuff; a latte had nothing on it. But the highschool athletes were taking it and dying, so they banned it.

I could be wrong :shrug:

[regnaD kciN]

34. What also is funny is that AAR is running Sudafed ads...

...where one person after another is asking a sales clerk at a drug store what to use for their cold or allergy symptoms, and the answer is always "Sudafed -- aisle 5."

Not in this state it isn't, folks...

[StrongbadTehAwesome]

18. It seems like a rather ineffective law to me

Anyone who needs more than 2 boxes (for illegal purposes or not) can just go to multiple stores. Anyone who would clear out a store's stock (like those making meth would probably need to do in order to get enough) probably would not buy it at the store anyway.

This post has been edited to correct freeper-like punctuation errors.

[Kali]

20. woo hoo Strongbad.

wasted a whole afternoon on his site a while back. Funny.

[Guaranteed]

26. Yeah, that's the basic problem. nt

[Guaranteed]

24. Totally support it, doesn't make me feel weird buying Sudafed.

Just take a shower and comb your hair before you got out and buy it, and no one's going to suspect you of anything.

Help's if you have the sniffles, too. :)

[fnottr]

31. yeah, we've had that around here for awhile

Hasn't changed muchof anything, meth manufacturing's still a leading industry in the town I live in.

[Susang]

36. Ridiculous and ineffectual

It will only inconvenience the consumer while not making it any more difficult for meth labs to obtain the pseudoephedrine they need.

After all, it's only a short drive to Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa. If you don't feel like driving, there's always the internet to fill your decongestant needs.

In the meantime, the guys who sell the shit are still on my street corner, doing business as usual, unimpeded by any regulations or inconveniences of any kind. Except the occasional drive-by, of course.

[baba]

37. Why can't they just go to several different stores?

It would be easy to get around this law.

[MadHound]

38. This is an extemely stupid law, as are most drug laws

And quite frankly the only ones it penalizes are those who are innocent. Those who are actually making the meth have moved on from Sudafed, and found some other innocous product that they can get their needed chemicals from.

Quite frankly I think that they should just go ahead and legalize all drugs. We didn't go to hell we they were all legal before, and we wouldn't now. In fact judging from the stats taken when drugs were legal here, and where they're legal abroad, addiction rates, and usage rates go down after that initial "Its Legal!" spike. You could tax the stuff, provide drug education programs, have a QC program so that people aren't getting bad stuff, make good tax paying citizens out of criminals, reduce the violent crime rate, and stop putting people in jail, and ruining their lives over a quarter gram of something or another. Oh, and we can get some of our Constitutional rights back.