Yikes! Has this happened to you? Bought some OTC sinus meds....

and was told by the cashier that I had to sign my name and give my phone number! I can imagine the look on my face and I asked the guy 'why?' He told me that people are buying them to make drugs. Okay....that has nothing to do with me. To make a long story short, I signed 'Jane Doe', with a bogus phone number. Has this happened to anybody else?

of Clariton D... was told people are abusing it?

Pseudoephedrine, a "precursor chemical," is used to make methamphetamines. :shrug:

Look at the ingredients of the OTC drugs you buy. If they contain pseudoephedrine hydrochloride then they're now supposed to be sold only by licensed pharmacists, prescription not required, in limited quantities (<6g. per single purchase).

See H. R. 5347 - 'Methamphetamine Abuse Prevention Act of 2004'.



FWIW, phenylpropanolamine is also now controlled.

There are many, many meth labs out in the rural areas down South.

Just kidding.

it's just not integral to their calculus.

:spank: :spank: :spank:

I hate it when I spit out my drink on my keyboard. . .

No more!x(

to stop meth labs by taking my/your/our name(s) at the the drug or grocery stores?

Meth, on the other hand, is different.

Next time, try "Laura Bush, 202-456-1414"....
:evilgrin:

(Can't think of Jeb & Columba's daughter's name)

Apparently you haven't been watching the local news or reading the local papers.

It's a new law. You have to give your name and number when buying cold medicine. The explanation is that it's supposed to cut down on crystal meth production.

national news is about all I can bear.

had to give my phone number, yesterday trying to buy cold meds for the hubby.It was such a waste I've shopped at the same Safeway for 15 years. I'm really sure this new law is going to work around Portland/Metro,(not) especially since you can just cross the river to Washington and buy all the cold meds you want..

Sad to say, though, it doesn't work. The meth producers just find another, unlisted ingredient to throw into their mix. All this sign your name BS does is create a database of people with allergies and sinus problems.

People will find a way to cook up the stuff they want despite whatever barriers are thrown in their way. All these type of controls do is make life difficult for the rest of us.

Meth, like all other drugs, should be legal.

Pot > yeah.
Meth < no.

It isn't like keeping it illegal is preventing people from trying it, or getting hooked on it. The War on Drugs has failed, and quite frankly, has become more of a problem than the drugs themselves. Our civil liberties are being stripped, our property seized, our police forces corrupted, our fellow citizens killed or injured, our deficit run up, all for a failed policy known as the War on Drugs.

If a person wants to do a drug, making it illegal isn't going to do a damn thing, except making the act more alluring to our youth, who are always looking for something to regel against. It isn't like making meth, or any other drugs, illegal is going to prevent somebody from becoming hooked on it, it won't.

What should be done is to make such drugs legal, and clean. Tax them, and use the procedes of the tax to educate people on the dangers of drugs. One hundred fifty years ago, all drugs were legal, and yet somehow America didn't have a drug problem. Yes, we had people who were addicted, but the percentages were way less than what they are now that drugs were made illegal. And those that did do drugs were able to have quality drugs, not some God awful kitchen sink poison passing itself off as meth. You can produce the drugs under safe, clean settings, instead of in a house full of children, frying their brains with the fumes, and dumping the hazardous, toxic waste off in the woods.

Make drugs legal, all of them. Restore our civil rights, our civil dignity. Help the addicts openly and honestly, rather than jailing them for victimless crimes. Make the product clean, and easily available, not some kitchen sink mix of battery acid and match heads. People have always had the need to escape reality via chemicals and drugs since the dawn of mankind. No matter what a society does, people will find a way. Instead of fighting a needless war against your own population, leave such decisions up to the individual, and provided for their choices kindly and compassionately with clean drugs and help when they wish to get off of them. I think you will find that there will be a lower rate of addiction and that our society as a whole will be better off.

would you really want to be a legitimate cocaine seller in the litigious world we live in?

addictive lethal substances definitely deserve and need to be controlled...and that includes nicotine and caffeine.

I sure that they wouldn't mind an additional revnue stream.

In England, they are doing an experiment with their heroin addicts. Rather than throwing them in jail, they are essentially feeding their addiction. An example: Heroin user gets on the train, comes into town before work, stops off at the medical clinic, gets their heroin shot, and goes to work. Is a happy, productive taxpaying citizen at work, gets off, goes back to the clinic for another shot before going home on the train, and everyone wins. The addict doesn't have to pay outrageous prices for questionable product, the state saves on incarceration expenses, the clinic is paid for a product, and the public isn't threatened by an out of control addict, but rather benefitted by a productive tax paying citizen. Win-win, and if the addict wants to get off of the stuff, there is also qualified help available for that also. Why not apply that over here?

Prohibition has never worked, we've seen that not only in our country with alcohol, but around the world. People seem to have a built in need to alter their own conscience, and will go to great lengths to do so. Criminalizing such substances, whether it is caffeine, nicotine, pot or heroin is simply going to lead to a corrupted government and citizens with their rights stripped from them. We are wasting billions of dollars in a futile War on Drugs, we are criminalizing ordinary citizens, all of our rights are being stripped, and only a corrupt few are benefitting. Compare this to the hundred plus years in our nations history when drugs were legal, and the addiction and usage rates were lower. When as citizens we had our full compliment of rights and liberties, and before government wasn't corrupted by drug profits. Which my friend is the better scenario? Which is better for our society?

NONE of them would be interested inselling coke, heroin, meth, or other deadly drugs over-the-counter.

I agree with the british model- but you said that all drugs should be legalized.
that's a MUCH DIFFERENT situation than having them distributed thru clinics and pharmacies w/ a prescription.

also- in regard to the "hundred plus years in our nations history when drugs were legal"...
during that time, there were no automobiles for drugged-out zombies to go zooming around in...
it was a much less industrialized/technological society, where addicts were much less likely to hurt themselves or others.

as far as what is better for "society", keeping addictive lethal substances illegal or controlled is FAR better in today's world. full legalization of these type of substances would be a nightmare.

let me ask you this- do you think that frat boys should be able to go to the grocery store to stock up on roofies for the weekend?

Why wouldn't they want to sell them if they were legalized? Litigation? Sorry, that arguement is canceled by the alcohol industry model, selling a drug that is just as harmful and addictive as any other drug. Litigation worries certainly don't prevent them from doing business.

As far as it being a less industrialized, less technical society a hundred years ago, thus a less lethal one for zonked out people to live in, read your history friend. The dangers of yesteryear were just as great, if not greater than today's society. No, there may not have been automobiles for them to speed around in, but there were an equal amount of other dangers, ones that were magnified by the lack of safety features found in our society. Besides, once again let us point to the alcohol industry. I contend that if you make laws similar to DWIs and DUIs, etc. combine it with proper education, and your rate of people zooming around zonked on drugs in a car would be equal to or less than what happens with alcohol. We as a society accept this risk of alcohol and cars, why not with other drugs?

So you are of the mind that is benefits our society more to have our civil rights abridged, lives ruined, our economy bogged down by the costs of this War on Drugs, rampant corruption in our government and other civic institutions, prisons full of mostly black or other minority citizens(though whites use drugs in far greater numbers) whose only crime was a victimless one, our inner cities torn apart by drug wars, innocents killed, etc, etc, all in order to keep certain substances illegal, not unavailable, just illegal? Have you learned nothing from prohibition? You aren't going to be able to stop people from doing drugs, you're not even going to be able to slow them down. In fact, if you look at the statistics in our country, less addiction and use occurs when said substances ARE legal, yet you wish to continue this madness of a War on Drugs. Why? There is no valid reason other than you're either making money off of it, or you've bought into the bogus reasoning of the drug warriors who are making money off of it. Which category do you fall into?

And I have no clue what roofies are friend(darn those kids and their new lingo;)), but if they are harming nobody but themselves, if they know the risks of what they are doing, then I have no problems with it.

I don't agree with the war on drugs as it is being waged, but i'm also not naive enough to think that the bulk of this society would be able to cope with full legalizaqtion of all substances.
I do believe that marijuana should definitely be legal, but controlled in much the same way as alcohol is today.
other drugs- meth, cocaine, heroin, etc...(pretty much anything that has a realistic OD potential) should be available thru prescriptions, clinics, etc,...but definitely not fully legal to distribute. and there should be harsher penalties for illegal traficking/dealing them- especially to minors; but addiction/use should be treated as a medical condition, NOT a crime- and better efforts at honest education should be made.
and in case you haven't noticed- as a society we are becoming less and less accepting of drunk driving and the risks of mixing alcohol and cars all the time- just look at the differences in attitude/laws/behaviour over the past 25 or so years- even in the most back-as-wards backwater places in texas and louisiana.

it's so easy to spray chemicals on forests in Columbia versus educating and treating drug addicts, isn't it.

I think we should have a system like Holland.

there is a new strain of coca going around that is called "roundup-ready." wired magazine had a great article about it last month.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.11/columbia.html

that would be even funnier....

Just pick a name at random from the FBI's 10 most wanted list.

"Hi, Homeland Security? This is Charlene at the CVS in Shellpile, NJ. Osama Bin Laden was just here and he bought some Claritin D, a box of Trojans, The Jane Fonda Workout Video, and a can of Red Bull."

That's all we need! LOL! ;)

he has WINGS!

I buy in safeway and it's never happened to me there.


if it was walmart, that's the problem. they are all for the nanny state.

and then blush and look down coyly.

at least you get to laugh at them later

It doesn't matter the quantity in each package. I can ask for a manager's approval to buy more so I do. I also blatantly go through the checkout several times to buy more packages at a time. These laws just annoy me and seem ridiculous. I think I had to give my name the few times I requested a manager's approval to buy more so I just made up a name.

idea that chaps my hide!

to pass this law limiting the amount you may purchase at any one time and making you sign for it. It is also NOT on the shelves anymore but kept behind the pharmacy counter so that you have to ask for it.

In addition to being such a godly and moral red state, we have one of the highest number of meth labs in the nation. You know, those moral values require lots and lots of energy to keep up with :evilgrin:

can buy in a month. I have severe seasonal allergies (and each season brings a new allergen, so they're all year round). Actifed works better than most of the prescription stuff (which is fine since I can't afford prescriptions anyway), but I can't buy enough in OK to take the full dose. The full dose is 4 pills/day - under the guidelines I can only buy enough to have 2.5 pills/day.

I have family members buying the stuff for me. If I go out of state, I buy it and bring it back. I go to the doc to get samples of the prescription crap just so I can take something when I've run out of actifed (my insurance makes it cheap enough to go for an office visit to make this worthwhile).

And in OK you have to show your ID and they enter it into a state wide register, so if you try to buy more than your 3 packs total/month you'll be denied.

The rumor is that this will be nation-wide before long. I'm thinking it has to do with big pharma worrying about their loss of profits from people like me. For less than $10/month, I can reliably treat my allergies - if I had to go with prescription it would be easily $60/month.

forcing people to cook meth.

It's supposed to cut down on meth production but apparently the police have never heard of a meth run (going from store to store and buying OTC cold meds). It's a stupid law.

and we were directed to a lock case and the employee had to get it for us. i guess these people paid minimum wage decide if we are consumers or dealers

new regulations to stop Meth production.

But I noticed most of the stores are displaying it behind the counters now and you have to ask for it.

I was told it was because teenagers were popping whole packs of Coricidin like candy.

I don't mind having to ask the pharmacist for an OTC medication, but I would object to having to sign.

A mere charade.

Think of those thousands of people whose brains have been blown out by meth who vote Republican! If more people could think, they'd have been impeached by now.

really wanted to push the issue. LOL

Woot! :hi:

You can only buy 3 packages of medicine that contain sudafed in it. It's supposed to crack down on the production of meth.

Even if you only buy one, they want your information. (They say because otherwise people could run around to different stores, buying one at each location.)

When I bought some children's and adult's at the same time, they asked to copy my driver's license.

chapped my hide!

I have a family member who is a DEA guy. We were talking at a family funeral and he tells me that there is this big list of shit that goes into Meth. Stuff like Drano, and batteries (lithium ones, I think?) and Ammonia... It was this totally bizarre list of shit you probably have around your house--ya know?

Anyhow, if you buy a bunch of this crap all at one time the store will call the local police. I was simply amazed by it all when he told me this, and later it was confirmed by a buddy of mine who was on a Grand Jury case involving Meth production.


Laura

for the info.

problem here in East Tennessee.

It's really awful the effect it has on families, especially children who are poisoned by their parents cooking and separated forcibly from their parents when the parents are arrested!

It's truly, truly awful.

I find it annoying that I'm limited to the quantity I can buy and have to supply name, but if it keeps pseudoephedrineout of the hands of one person who wants to cook meth, I can accept it.

It does, however, bug me that I suffer the consequences of someone else's criminal activities.

I just love wonderful BS sentiments like this...

"if it saves just one life, its worth it."

"do it for the children."

:eyes:

Little bastards, if you ask me.

Am I cool and progressive enough for you, Jack?

clean up after one's been busted, or worse, exploded, then you might understand any efforts, however misguided, to stop them before they start. Not to mention the violent crime that follows a surge in meth use in a community...

problems related to Meth labs.

It will be about as effective at reducing the ammount of drugs consumed in this country as all other anti-drug legislation.

Which is to say it will have practically no effect.

Glad we dont have that stupid law here in Texas.

in Texas is way up. Thank you Texas we sooners love you

but where in OK are you? I have family in Pittsburg and Latimer Counties. Trust me, drug use is not down at all there. The county sheriff makes huge drug busts all the time (when I lived there it was just pot, now it's meth, yeah, that war on drugs has really been effective).

Oklahoma county has seen an upsurge in meth lab busts (at least that's what the sheriff's deputies tell me) and there has been no discernible difference from the new law. I live in a tiny, clean neighborhood and we had a meth lab busted here not too long ago.

Meth is bad, but this law has done nothing to even slow it down.

northeastern, I have not been reading about any "lab" bust anywhere near here since the new law has become effective. When prior to this new law It was almost everyday we read something about a drug bust(meth labs).

reporting them. After all, we can't prove that the new law isn't working, right?

Talk to some county sheriffs and see what they say.

Oh, and thanks for the welcome.

if they've raised the price on the drugs containing pseudoephedrine?

I can get generic actifed for less than $2 for 36 pills.

in red states?

I've always been in favor of decriminalizing and legalizing all drugs. All of them. It's hard to justify the criminalization of heroin when alcohol does the damage it does. So, I've always advocated the legalization of all of it.

That would, of course, put Darwinian natural selection on a fast track, and would probably take care of a lot of people who think * is a great leader.

that was set up as a meth lab - and running! VERY close to Lansing.

I work with the Wichita Police Department in data entry; I take lots of reports about this sort of thing. People buy sudafed, and use the large amounts of pseudoephedrine within to manufacture meth. If you buy a large amount in one outing, then that's a definite red flag.

In fact, Kansas recently passed a law against possession of sizable amounts of pseudoephedrine...and I don't agree that it's a bogus law. I believe that meth is one of the more perfidous drugs out there, and the people that deal in it are vermin. When farmers have to post security guards to ensure their anhydrous ammonia isn't pilfered, then it's gone too far.

what if drugs like pot, cocaine, opium, etc. were legal? would people feel the need to make their drugs from the SHIT that meth is made from? would more drug users live to become productive members of society if they used "natural" drugs not whatever can be found in the shed or under the sink? would a more effective approach be monitoring the industrial chemicals that have far fewer suppliers than cold medicine, which is available at virtually every corner store? or is this a bullshit feel-good law?

people don't die and fuck their lives from "good" drugs, that happens from adulterated drugs, or drugs made from chemicals. people make drugs from chemicals because that's what they got.

RESPONSIBLE drug users HATE meth and anything like it.

it too would benefit because companies would find more efficient methods of making it, and thus reduce on the waste.

you're worried about the chemicals being dumped in the sewer/ground etc? i'm also concerned about what that stuff does the the people that take it. meth is a bad drug and nobody short of methheads wants it legal. the drugs i speak of have no toxic waste do dispose of.

it seems obvious that "they" want us hooked on the most damaging drugs possible, whether meth or vioxx.

i don't suggest that ALL drugs be legal. well maybe they should, if someone wants to get high off drain cleaner, well lets give their stupid ass a freakin IV then!

never taken the stuff in my life, I hate uppers. But I'm for a total end to all drug prohibtion. So SOMEBODY short of a meth head does think it should be legal.

Being a drug addict is a choice.

Some people can manage to use drugs without becoming and addict, some people fail.

But ultimately its a choice, and I dont think it should be one that the government should be involved in.

The government is already too involved in too much of our lives, and the war on drugs is a farce.

The war on drugs has nothing to do with drugs (there are more drugs now then ever before), and it has everything to do with money (confiscating people's property and money) and control.

Thanks to the war on drugs people now have far less rights than they did before it started.

Especially THIS drug cartel...

and they definately hate competition, thats they they lobby so hard to keep these other drugs illegal.

They sell them right next to the "Horny Goat Weed" pills and the rolling papers.

thats made with this stuff you wouldn't be so fast to critize, it is very additive and it destroys everyone in its path. Luckily I don't need to use otc sinus meds but if I did I will gladly sign my name and number. Here in Oklahoma the new law has pretty much stopped the "cooking". I have to think its a good thing, the new law.

do you have a link or proof of that?

I don't mean to sound oppositional, I live in Arkansas and they are considering doing this. I take Claritin-D 24 hour nearly every day for allergies and find it annoying to say the least that they even put it back behind the counter!

I'd be real surprised if this stopped meth. They'll just find a new recipe.

At least our new law concerning otc sinus meds has slowed consumption, and at this stage if you are slowing you are doing good. During this time maybe someone will be saved from the meth Scrooge. Thats all I'm saying

My daughter has a friend who's family takes in foster children. One of the families they got were 3 kids from a Meth house. The oldest one (I think about 9 years old) had missed almost the entire school year because Mom kept him home to help with the Meth production, the youngest - a toddler - has had his voice permanently damaged from breathing the fumes from birth.

Another one of her friends that used to do Meth has been diagnosed with kidney and heart problems from doing Meth - he's 23.

I make my own soap and buy lye from the grocery store when I need it - I would gladly sign anything they ask if it meant someone else might be stopped from making this horrible drug.

with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome?

Meth lab busts are not down in OK. Mainly because the people that make the drugs didn't BUY the sudafed in the first place - they stole it. They're still stealing it.

I was okay with putting limits on how many you could buy at a time. I was even okay with putting it behind the pharmacy (even though that meant that it was next to impossible for me to get my necessary allergy meds because I didn't work near a pharmacy and didn't have a long enough lunch period to get to a store with a pharmacy). But when they limited it to less than the full dose/month - that's when I have to get mad. I shouldn't have to live with sinus infections every other month because I can't get actifed. My family shouldn't have to buy it for me just so that I can have a full dose. My kids shouldn't suffer with a mom that is half asleep all the time because of untreated allergies.

if we had to sign our names and give our SSN for everything we purchased.

Just thing of all those crimes that could be prevented or atleast investigated better if every aspect of our lives was recorded.

I mean, cmon, its for the children.

:eyes:

and surrounding areas in central tx have a lot of problems with meth.
Someone told me that one person will gets lots of people they know to go buy the meds, so that it wont look suspicious. Then the people who get it in different stores turn around and sell it to the cook, or get some of the 'go' when its cooked.

No matter what the gov tries to do to stop it, aint nothing GOING to stop it, because the draw for the money and the drug is always going to be there.

I also know lots of women who use it to keep their weight down. A family member who used a while back, once started naming off names of people she knew who used the drug and my mouth dropped.

Its definitely popular in Texas.

As more and more of these BS regulations come down the pike, more people will turn to medicinal herbs. (which they are trying to regulate too, but they can keep me from growing them....yet)

One I have used with great success for sinus congestion and drainage is OHSHA ROOT. Using a tincture is better than a tea as this stuff is strong! But it clears up a congested head like nobodies business.

That said. This posting is not intended as medical advice. Any choice to use this herb for self medication is a personal choice and a personal responsibility.

i can think of at least one or two that they try to keep you from growing, under threat of a long prison term.

and I usually prefer to use herbal or homeopathic products. I know that they have been trying to regulate the natural stuff. I think that it's ridiculous!