It never fails. A group of people - most of the time a small group of people - will choose to ignore our laws and our elected officials will see it as their sworn duty to add a bunch of new laws that won't change the previous violators' behavior, but it will certainly punish the innocent.
In one of the newspapers this week, there was a story about another small town in Oklahoma trying to make the purchase of allergy medicine with pseudoephedrine require a prescription from a doctor. Holdenville, Oklahoma has already adopted this city ordinance and the man pushing the ordinances has moved on to other communities.
I know the use of methamphetamine is a major problem in our state. My wife works with criminals every day so I fully grasp the extent of the drug problem.
What I don't follow is the nanny-society thought that another law to make it more difficult to buy allergy meds is really going to help in any way.
Several years ago, Oklahoma created a registry for everyone who buys pseudoephedrine. The US Congress followed suit and today, when I need to get my allergy meds, I have to show my drivers license and sign a sworn statement about who is going to use the meds. Add to that, I can only buy a limited number of the pills at time. For example, I had a prescription for Allegra-D. My doctor prescribed them for me in a 90-day supply with a renewal good for an entire year. Now Allegra is no longer a prescription drug and I can buy it over the counter. That should be a good thing, but it really isn't. Not only does it now cost me almost four times as much to get the Allegra, I can only buy 15 days worth at a time. Not only is the amount I can buy limited, they don't even offer a 15-day supply package. I have to buy a box of 10 and a box of 5 to get my "maximum" allotment. And every 15 days I have to go back to the pharmacy and get another two boxes. But when I get home and get ready to take the Allegra each night, I have to open some stupid little bubble-wrapped package that at times requires a pair of scissors to open.
Now, when I had a prescription for Allegra D and they filled it at the pharmacy I got a bottle with 90 pills in it and no special bubble wrap or ID required. If cities adopt local ordinances requiring a prescription for pseudoephedrine, will this remove all the other packaging and limited quantity restrictions? Can I go back to my single pill bottle with unwrapped pills in it? I think we all know the answers to those questions.
We have laws today to limit who can buy pseudoephedrine and how much they can buy. The law-abiding citizens have already been inconvenienced in order to comply with the existing laws. And while meth manufacturing declined for a short period of time, it is now on the rise again, just in a a different form. The law-breakers amongst us found a way to skirt the current law.
With other cities comtemplating new ordinances to further limit access to pseudoephedrine, does anyone really believe it will have any lasting impact on meth manufacturing? Or is this just another ordinance that will punish the innocent?
