If Governor Doyle signs the Crackdown on Meth Bill, a.k.a. the “Sudafed Law”, I hope the media demands an explanation of the blatant hypocrisy of requiring a photo ID to buy cold pills while accepting verbal self identification to vote. This is a classic case of politicians overreacting to a legitimate social problem and taking the easy way out for themselves. It is easier for the government to manipulate the behavior of law abiding citizens by creating regulations that criminals will ignore, than it is to focus efforts on the specific problem individuals.
I’m certain that the politicians were given information similar to the Iowa "Opinion" Survey (PDF File). The State of Iowa did a "telephone survey” of 410 citizens to demonstrate public support for restricting pseudoephedrine sales. Observe how a scripted series of questions starts with establishing that people buy cold medications then moves to “establish the danger”, “create an urgency to correct the danger” and “gain agreement that the proposed solution is no big deal”.
Q6: In Iowa and elsewhere, some people are removing the pseudoephedrine from these medications to manufacture methamphetamine, commonly known as meth. Have you ever heard that this was happening?The important thing to remember is that pseudoephedrine is not a dangerous chemical, methamphetamine is a dangerous chemical. The vast majority of methamphetamine in the United States is produced in Mexico in industrial quantities. Foreign drug cartels aren’t shoplifting five boxes of Sine-off from Walgreen’s. If this law passes there will probably be unintended adverse consequences since local amateur criminals will steal what they can no longer purchase. Finally where is the concern for my “right to privacy” in personal healthcare?
Q7: Do you think the manufacture of meth using pseudoephedrine is a major problem, a minor problem, or not a problem at all?
Q8a: How much of an inconvenience to you would it be if people were limited in the quantity of these medications they could buy at one time?
Q8b: How much of an inconvenience to you would it be if people had to show a photo-ID to buy them?
Using over the counter medicines to treat minor health matters is none of the Government’s business, and I will resent the Wisconsin Legislature for making my life more difficult with a “solution” that won’t work. The following sources cover the meth “epidemic” in extensive detail. Mara Zusman’s Paper for a Harvard Law School class has working links to anywhere you want to go to understand the issue.
Methamphetamine Defined “Meth is a man-made drug. There are two primary methods for cooking meth, P-2-P and ephedrine reduction. Both processes received their name from the primary precursor (ingredients) chemicals used in the production of meth. The P-2-P (phenyl-2-propanone) method is primarily used by large drug cartels in Mexico. … The prohibition against P-2-P in the United States has resulted in almost a total reliance upon ephedrine reduction.”
Mara Zusman Paper “Two different types of drug producers use pseudoephedrine to make methamphetamine. Small-scale illicit drug producers (“amateurs”), who account for 20% of the production of methamphetamine, acquire pseudoephedrine by either buying or stealing vast quantities of Sudafed, Sinutab, or Afrin. … Large-scale illicit drug producers (“professionals”), who account for 80% of the methamphetamine supply, acquire pseudoephedrine by buying “tens of millions of pseudoephedrine tablets per month [from] rogue chemical companies” or by buying it from Canadian companies and then use the pseudoephedrine to produce methamphetamine in “super-laboratories” in the United States and Mexico.”
