bmetzler's Journal: Meth Restrictions Working In Minnesota

Well, here's news I'm sure that was unexpected. Apparently, the new Meth Law is working. This is the one that restricts the sale of cold tablets. According to the local paper meth labs are on the decrease. This is indeed good news.

"Meth labs have collapsed to the point of mere extinction," Stevens said. State crime investigators are encountering far fewer of the clandestine labs than they were a year ago, he said.

That's the right direction...

Maybe

[Allen Zadr]

I sure hope so. Also, just like crack, the 'second rung' of users have strung out in such a public and painful way, that it's kept a lot of new folk away from the stuff.

Then again, there have been a few comments around my part of MN that everything is more difficult to find right now.

At what cost?

[RailGunner]

I have chronic allergies, and am prone to sinus infections. When I get really congested, I've found that Drixoral works really well for me. So did Sudafed, before they changed the formula and removed the pseudoephedrine.

Will Drixoral follow suit and become ineffective for me? I hope not:

Because if it does, the actions of a minority (the meth addicts) have screwed the rest of us out of an effective way to treat allergy symptoms, and that SUCKS.

So thanks for ruining it for the rest of us, meth addicts. N

Re:At what cost?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Maybe you should do what the Mexican Superlabs have been doing, and Buy ahead online [google.com]- at these prices $500 worth would likely last you the rest of your life.

Re:At what cost?

[Some Woman]

Oh, how I love Drixoral. I stocked up when I went to visit my parents (outside of MN) just out of principle. This particular drug is getting harder, and harder to find. It's the only thing that works for me when I have a cold. The pseudoephedrine substitute is crap.

Of course, the drug manufacturers could just remake their medications to have the drug suspended in a gel, but I don't know if drugs as effective when delivered in that fashion.

Re:At what cost?

[Zeriel]

Wow, we agree on something.

Yeah, I'm all for reducing meth production, but not at the expense of reducing my supply of precious, precious pseudoephedrine when I'm having a sinus problem.

Seems to me that a better system than hard limits might be something where buying more than X is legal, but prima fascie evidence for a search warrant looking specifically and only for a meth lab. Sure, it's more intrusive, but better that and being able to breathe in my opinion--YMMV.

Good for 25%

[Marxist Hacker 42]

The main problem though is that 75% of the meth consumed in this country, comes from Mexico, which has no such restrictions on cold tablets, and has virtually NO border control at present time. Yes- American meth manufactuers have been pushed to the brink of extinction by the restriction of cold tablets- and eventually that *may* affect the price of making meth in Mexico (as cold tablet manufacturers switch to alternate ingredients not covered by the ban). But this is only a small piece of the puzzle, not

Re:Good for 25%

[ces]

From what I understand there are any number of routes to making meth. It just so happens that cold tablets are one of the easier ones.

There are still plenty of labs (and meth) around here, even with the restrictions on psuedoephedrine sales. Heck BC is close enough that I suspect we'll start seeing meth smuggled in from there (just like we see pot and heroin) if it gets too hard to make around here.

As an aside I'll note that cocaine (like heroin) has gotten really cheap and really pure in the past few years

Re:Good for 25%

[Marxist Hacker 42]

We can't win the war on drugs without comprehensive border control- and we can't do comprehensive border patrol if 2/3rds of our military are stationed overseas.

Re:Good for 25%

[ces]

Even with border control we won't 'win' the 'war on drugs'. I don't think it is really winnable in the first place. In the second place not much progress will be made until demand reduction is addressed.

Dubious.

[Kymermosst]

Oregon has a similar law. Besides making it damn hard for my poor allergy-suffering self to get decongestants that actuall work, these laws also do two things:

1. Shut down the backyard labs.
2. Drive up the price of meth.

The consequence of #1 is that more meth will be produced at the big labs in Mexico and other places, where the manufacturers have *vast* resources compared to your local cook. This puts more money into the hands of the big cartels and makes it harder to bust the manufacturers and find th