NEW WAR ON DRUGS? WHAT A HEADACHE

In March, sometime while I was sleeping off a sinus attack, Congress
passed a law restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine, ephedrine and
phenylpropanolamine products. Public Law 109-177 places these
medications into a new Controlled Substances Act designed to limit the
manufacture and sale of methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug.

Those three medicines can be synthesized into the above illegal drug.
All well and good unless, like me, you have chronic nasal allergies.

I found out recently, when trying to purchase Claritin-D for a pesky
allergy problem, that I can no longer run into a store, buy medication
containing pseudoephedrine, then quickly get out. I don't want regular
Claritin and it's the "D" part (pseudoephedrine) that caused my problem.

Finally, we found it at Wal-Mart. But not before looking in three
different stores. I quickly realized that what I thought was a box of
pills was, in fact, a stack of plastic cards. There were three stacks
of cards, representing Claritin-D 20 tablets, 10 tablets and five tablets.

Taking a card for the 20-tablet box to the pharmacy counter, I
discovered that I could purchase only one box. More than that puts me
over the legal limit. According to the new law, which will go into
effect nationally on Sept. 30, I may not purchase more than 3.6 grams
of pseudoephedrine daily or more than 9.0 grams/monthly.

I neither know nor care about how much of this drug I have to purchase
in order to manufacture an illegal drug. I only know that buying the
medication was an aggravating and somewhat demeaning experience. The
clerk had to see my drivers license, and I had to sign a logbook. So
much for privacy and personal responsibility.

This law is just not going to work. Let's face facts: If a criminal
wants to get hard-to-find drugs, the criminal will get them.

What Congress has done with good intentions and incessant meddling is
to open a lucrative market for organized crime. No longer will the
manufacture and sale of methamphetamine be the element of individual
backwoodsmen and localized urban drug dealers; it's going to be a huge
problem. Anyone remember Prohibition?

Meanwhile, for people like the woman in line behind me, sick daughter
in tow, who had to whip out her drivers license to buy Triaminic
Children's Cold & Nighttime Cough, it's a headache.

Congratulations, Congress, you've just re-created the war on drugs! I
wonder how many law-enforcement officers will die because of it? Too
bad that little girl in Wal-Mart is already in the line of fire.

For more info, check out: http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/pubs/b
rochures/pseudo/pseudo-notice .htm

Jo Pope, a free-lance writer and photographer, lives in Tavares.