A lot of people think that the War on Sudafed is simply an inconvenience for Sudafed purchasers. Similar to the way they’ve become accustomed to being delayed and searched at airports, Americans just shrug their shoulders and let the pharmacy employees enter their drivers license information into government databases, so that illicit meth lab operators can be flagged and caught. (Somehow, I find it hard to imagine most meth lab operators actually being so dumb as to run around showing their ID to buy Sudafed, but never mind that.)
But this is more than an inconvenience for Sudafed purchasers. It is a major inconvenience for people who simply want to buy reliable, effective, over the counter anti-cold medicine. Like me. I’ve been suffering from a horrible URI (bronchitis, fever, etc.), and I had to go through the Sudafed routine last week to buy not what I want to buy separately, but what used to be an active ingredient in my favorite OTC remedies. I did not used to be a Sudafed purchaser. I never bought it as a standalone ingredient. The problem is, Sudafed has been removed from virtually every once-effective OTC cold remedy. The drug store was very emphatic when I asked about this. You want Sudafed, you can only buy Sudafed.
I guess this means Big Pharma doesn’t want to sell effective OTC cold medicines anymore. With pseudoephedrine out, the new meds suck. (Not a new issue….)
TheraFlu used to be my all time favorite, because it got me to sleep. The old TheraFlu, not the reformulated variety. The kind that came in little envelopes that you would cut open and pour the powder into a cup of hot water. But despite its popularity, these days there is no TheraFlu at all. Unless you are willing to pay utterly exorbitant prices on Amazon or ebay. It seems that taking out the Sudafed wasn’t enough to satisfy FDA tyrants, for the company was forced to recall its entire TheraFlu line because of a problem with child-proof caps. What child-proof caps have to do with small envelopes, I do not know. It seems to me that the parents ought to be responsible, not the government.
But it’s the same story for any of the popular OTC remedies. There is no Sudafed in any of them. Zero. Which means that consumers have to estimate how much pseudoephedrine they need to complement their once-effective cold remedies.
Has any of this stopped methamphetamine dead in its tracks? Hardly; all it has done is to shift production to Mexico, and give the bloody cartels yet another lucrative criminal opportunity.
The net effect is that more Americans will now suffer from the effects of the common cold than before, while more Mexicans will be tortured and murdered.
Anyone who can make sense out of this, I’m all ears.
Comments
6 responses to “Americans must sniffle and sneeze so Mexicans can be tortured and killed”
Poor mexico so far from god and so close to the united states!
Anyone who can make sense out of this, I’m all ears.
It gives power over Americans to gov’t bureaucrats and law enforcement.
Eric, you’re better off buying the medications individually and taking them as needed for the symtoms you’re experiencing. (No need to take a cough suppressant when you don’t have a cough.) You’re right, of course, that the prohibition on Sudafed just shifts the blame, but it does mean fewer exploding meth labs in the US. Sudafed is a very effective decongestant, but it makes me feel crazier than usual, so I avoid it unless I am very stuffed up. I wonder when they will get around to controlling dextromethorphan. It’s a hallucinogen in high doses. I found a friend of a friend tripping and drooling in my living room a few years ago. Not very pretty. Friend and friend-of-friend got the boot. I am in favor of self medication. It’s almost beer o’clock.
It all makes perfect sense if, and only if, you start your reasoning with the given that the US government is now a criminal enterprise.
What Veeshir said…
It makes perfect sense if you are looking far an excuse to have a standing army – one that won’t balk at being used against American civilians.
I guess this means Big Pharma doesn’t want to sell effective OTC cold medicines anymore.
No, it means the State won’t let them. Big Pharma itself would be happy to make customers happy with pseudoephedrine rather than the ineffective replacements.
(Note that even before the latest Moral Panic about pseudoephedrine, most US meth came from Mexico anyway.
As with every other drug panic, the “solution” is to remove the laws that create the problem.)