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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 11895
[Health]
Date Posted:
12/29/2004
6:20:51 pm EST
Wvox Stats
Views: 20,044
RSS: 2,944
Comments: 20
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Nebraska: Proposal Would Require Showing Of ID To Buy Cold Medicine
Author: Scott Bauer, Associated Press Source: Lincoln Journal Star (NE)
Title: PROPOSAL WOULD REQUIRE SHOWING OF ID TO BUY COLD MEDICINE
  Anyone wanting to buy a package of cold tablets containing the key meth-making ingredient pseudophedrine would have to show identification and sign a log book under a proposal endorsed Wednesday by [Nebraska] Gov. Mike Johanns and Attorney General Jon Bruning.
That idea did not sit well with the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union Nebraska chapter.
"This is a needless invasion of personal privacy," the ACLU's Tim Butz said. "All it's going to do is increase the cost of business for pharmacies and grocery stores."
The idea, which is to be introduced in the legislative session beginning next week, was endorsed by the Nebraska Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association in a statement distributed by Johanns' office.
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Community Thoughts: There are 20 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Wrong Way | Dec 30th. at 2:18:44 pm EST |
by Stryder (Springfield, MO) - wc_xemail
War on Drugs, what a laugh! Do you really want to stop the War? Legalize drugs, all of them. Take away the profit motive and all of a sudden no one pushes them. Let's see, Marijuana goes for (here in the midwest) around $100 an ounce....for a plant that grows naturally? WHY? Because it's illegal, if you get caught selling the stuff you go to jail. (or if you get caught selling the paraphenalia (can we say Tommy Chong? Amen!) Make that one legal and watch the price go to oh, say the price of tomatoes? $1.59 a pound? This will NOT happen, no matter how much folks want it because the Government MAKES too much on the War on Drugs. It's an artifical price hike. Legalize, tax and all of a sudden it's less a problem than alcohol. The folks with a REAL problem can be treated with the money saved on Task Forces and the market will stabilize ITSELF!Having law abiding citizens sign their name to a list, what a laugh! An example of how well that works.....? How many criminals register their guns?
Brightest Blessings
Stryder
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| Show ID-Not A Meth Cook | Dec 30th. at 12:59:19 pm EST |
by Pitch (Cascadia) - wc_xemail - Web
Oregon recently put a similar law into effect. /show ID before purchasing a limited number of cold medicine packages.
But there appears to be no age restriction, since school IDs count. And there's no package count restriction, so somebody can buy three 48-count packages, or bigger, if the drug companies make them.
All in all, I don't think it amounts to much in regard to reducing meth cooking.
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| Added Things | Dec 30th. at 12:39:23 pm EST |
by Gwynn (SW WA) - wc_xemail
We do have a limit on how many packs you can buy at each store but then there are still convenience stores who offer the mini -thins, etc. and actually some pretty big bottles of euphedra tablets and that doesnt make too much sense, although I dont know if it has to be a certain kind, etc. Im sure people will always find a way to get the stuff, and its such an underbelly around here, such an organized type of activity. My cousin got soo bad that not only has he become "Jesus" but he also accused my Aunt of programming the television remote so that fleas would bite him every morning at 4 a.m. and I used to get frantic calls from my best friend where she would say that the Schwans man was out to get her. Its really sad for me to see people become so freakish.
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| Profiteering | Dec 30th. at 12:16:20 pm EST |
by Terry (VA) - wc_xemail
Could it be that certain trade organizations support this bill because it helps them gouge consumers buying common sinus drugs?
If only gelcaps are commonly available, and standard pills restricted to behind counters of limited hours pharmacies, that enables retailers to sell expensive forms to customers presently buying cheaper ones. (Could that also be the reason meth labs buy the cheapest form?)
Federal regulations already took the first step to drive up decongestant costs, in Asa Hutchinson's reinterpretation of Clinton era drug laws when Bush parked him at the DEA while creating a job for him in Homeland Security. They banned 100 pill convenient economy packs of Sudaphed and generic Actifed, required nuisance blister packs, and limited retail sale quantities in ways too unrealistic for most retailers to enforce. Statistics aren't available, but Bush and his team also might claim to have boosted youth employment, if meth labs hire young kids to punch pills from blister packs, rather than just pour them from larger bottles.
I suppose driving the cost of decongestants from $10 for a year's supply bought in 100 pill bottles on sale, to $10 a week for nuisance blister packs bought in smaller amounts, wasn't enough for the political drug corporate donors. This proposed further restriction might double costs to consumers with sinusitis, which certainly is good for Amerika. After all, we're the nation of corporate whores, while any of us who simply want our privacy respected and to live outside abusive profiteering and all that comes with it don't really exist as citizens entitled to rights here. Or, so the use of drug addiction to excuse initiatives of very broad impact might suggest.
Why not just decriminalize all drugs, including Rx items now used to direct profits to AMA lobby members? That would drive down black market profits and collapse many of them, resulting in lower crime. Dealing with addicts as medical harm reduction cases, and crime based on actual thefts or assaults and not based on substances many people use peacefully, often within religious or cultural contexts, would be less costly and respect civil rights. Can we afford not to collapse organized crime (whether in government or fostered by it) , just as happened when the 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition?
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| Its A Good Thing | Dec 30th. at 12:07:06 pm EST |
by Gwynn (SW WA) - wc_xemail
Its a good idea- I live in an extremely meth infested area and I am sick of it. Sick of reading in my paper everyday of busts and sick of the fact there are drug houses and activity around my kids' school. A relative of mine was on it sooo bad he thinks hes Jesus now. My best friend has used off and on forever and now she is pregnant and more than likely was still using at the earliest stage... It is a disgusting toxic drug that turns people into monsters... My whole street was burglarized two weeks ago. They got into my vehicle and thourougly went through the glove box, etc. and stole my speaker box and amp right out of my driveway. I filed the report and the cop told me it was getting so bad that they may arrest one or two but then a couple more guaranteed are getting out of jail an hour or two later. People check in to our hospital daily for detox. And I dont live in a big city. A local store owner had so many problems with deals in her parking lot they did a big bust and now she is getting death threats. Its disgusting. We overheard some guy in a restaurant bragging about making the crap more potent to get more people hooked on it
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| A Truly Nasty Drug | Dec 30th. at 11:37:49 am EST |
by Fred Lawrence (Kansas, South of Nebraska) - wc_xemail
From what I've read about it, meth appears to be the nastiest recreational drug of them all. It causes instant addiction, which is bad enough, but worse, it causes serious brain damage after a short period of use. I've read that it can cause people to lose the ability to remember what they were doing five minutes ago. (One of my sources on this was that doctrinarily Conservative magazine, "Rolling Stone.") While I usually oppose any increase in government controls on anything, in this case, it might be justified.
Another problem is that meth makers and dealers ignore state boundaries. If they can't get their supplies in Oklahoma, they will go to Kansas. I've read that this is already happening. The states without the controls will be magnets for the labs.
Welcome to the Brave New World of the Twentieth Century!
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| Not So Bad | Dec 30th. at 10:45:17 am EST |
by Autumnsong (nowhere you would want to be) - wc_xemail
I just moved from Portland, OR, where they have one of the biggest meth problems in the country. They make meth lab busts on a weekly or daily basis. They don't have enough jail cells for all the meth heads commiting crimes. These addicts don't care who they hurt to get the mony to get their drugs. They used to have a tight hold on the selling of psudoephederine in Oregon, and as soon as they relaxed it, the meth problem went wild. They have just restarted the same type of system, where you have to show ID to buy it. I'm not sure if you have to sign a log book or not.
For you people that think these precautions are ridiculous, go visit a city where they have a huge meth problem. You do not want that to happen where you live. Trust me. Crime skyrockets. Your sense of personal safety goes out the window. If these new laws will help deter a big problem, then I'm all for it.
Happy New Year to all,
Autumnsong
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| I Am From Nebraska And Work There | Dec 30th. at 8:38:59 am EST |
by Mada Rua (Iowa) - wc_xemail
Having lived in that "Great State" and dealing with the Govenor and his policies on a daily basis because I still work in the state. I can say this doesn't surprise me. This is an ultra conservative state. It should be considered part of the Bible Belt.
When a group tried to get a Pagan Pride march going a few years ago a huge stink was started when the gov wouldn't recognize paganism as a real religion. A group member stood up at a public meeting and asked the gov about it and he replied that paganism wasn't a real religion.
I say that to try to give you a clearer picture of the people's mind set in this area. In Iowa, we can't buy more then three boxes at a time, yet the meth trade and manufacture still goes on here. Whats to stop them from ordering it off the 'net? Which I'm sure is common.
My point is this. We can regulate and legislate till none of us can leave our houses and crime will still happen. We must find the root/cause and stop it there. "The War on Drugs" is just a good way to keep people on the government payroll who otherwise wouldn't be able to get a good paying job. Sad but true I fear.
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| Give Me A Break.... | Dec 30th. at 7:36:12 am EST |
by Morning Bird (New York) - wc_xemail
What's next ? Will they be asking for ID when you buy Tylenol ? They should crack down on the manufacturers of the stuff not the public.
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| Good | Dec 30th. at 7:06:19 am EST |
by Silver Faery (USA) - wc_xemail
There is a big difference of buy a couple of boxes for stock for allergies, and a 100 boxes of it for meth! I have been a cashier in a state there was a limit of 5 per costumer. And yes every once in a while you would have a guy or normally a group of guys try to buy the extreme amount. There is no doubt in your mind what they are using it for.
If Nebraska passes this law, then states like Kansas wil soon follow suit and I am glad to hear that. Why...within these last 4 month alone they have raided at least 2 drug houses per month. And that is where my sister is living with her two kids.
Farmers have gotten word that the acid they use to help with planting crops is going to be changed as well, for it is also another meth ingredient, the locks no longer stop the crimes.
Personally I do not see showing your id to the pharmacy and signing your name as a step towards loosing privacy, I see it as safty. Maybe because my husband is in the army and you can get free cough syrup and cold medication from the pharmacy, all that is required, your id.
Good luck on passing this Nebraska, any little thing will help out ALOT.
Silver Faery
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| Within Reason | Dec 30th. at 2:59:16 am EST |
by Denali (Minneapolis, Minnesota) - wc_xemail
From my 3 years of living in Nebraska, I consistently heard about the meth lab problem in the state. Every few weeks or months there was almost always a news story about a meth lab being raided, or a massive meth drug bust. It was a pretty common problem.
I don't necessarily agree that a log is the way to go, but it could be useful all the same. Frankly I don't see it as an invasion of civil rights, I do see it as a sensible measure when someone buys say 8 or 9+ boxes of the stuff at a time, and regularly does so... In that case it's pretty clear they're not using it in the usual way it was meant to be used.
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| About ID | Dec 30th. at 12:03:01 am EST |
by Jon Hastings (New Zealand) - wc_xemail
Here in NZ we've had to show photo ID, and sign for, to obtain any over the counter meds containing pseudoephedrine for probably two or three years. Also, you can only buy one packet of meds.
There was only a small backlash when it started, but over here people are prepared to make that small sacrifice... Why? Too many crimes are made under the influence of meth.
We don't have much murder in this country, this year several murders made national news where the perps were known to be under the effects of meth.
It's too early to see if these measures have made any difference... But if it stops one crazy from chopping off his girlfriends hands, and another from setting his girlfriend alight (both happened, though the sword incident was last year) ...
I have friends who are cops. Cops here only have a batton and pepper spray, for a cop to carry a gun requires said cop to believe that his life would otherwise be in danger... Most of the time the guns stay in the boot of the car. Every cop I know is afraid that one day they too will come across a meth user, without backup.
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| Deja Vu | Dec 29th. at 11:52:45 pm EST |
by David K. M. Klaus (St. Louis, Mo.) - wc_xemail
This is how it started with narcotics: my late father was a pharmacist, and in the early '60s in Missouri, to purchase Paragoric (which contained codeine but at the time could be purchased without a prescription) you had to show identification and sign a logbook. Not these days, needless to say.
Pseudoephedrine-containing products are going to go back to a prescription-only basis, probably sooner than later.
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| Yep | Dec 29th. at 10:55:35 pm EST |
by Serendyn (ID) - wc_xemail
Another brillant stroke in a 35 year war on drugs that has done nothing but pad the coffers of drug lords.
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| Late Night Illnesses... | Dec 29th. at 10:50:06 pm EST |
by Taralyn (Wenatchee, WA) - wc_xemail
All of the above comments plus the fact that you'd only be able to buy it when the pharmacies are open. Cold and sinus problems always occur only duing pharmacy operating hours - yes ? *grin*
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