Indiana mayors at meth summit call for prescription-only cold medicines
I kind of makes you wonder how many times these bureaucrats are going to pull another “rabbit” out of their hat.. to try and put a halt to substance abuse. It is reported that 80% of the Meth in this country comes from south of the border… so restricting the sales of PSE products is going to impact its availability how ?
Indiana has been using NPLEx http://www.nplexservice.com/
This is a system that many states use as a national database to collect sales of PSE products.. Of course this system does not validate the driver’s license that is presented to the pharmacy.. So passable fake driver’s license goes into the system. IMO.. this system is so lame that if the driver’s license presented has been accepted by another pharmacy at some point in time.. once the pharmacy staff enters the driver’s license into the system.. the balance of the data points self populates.. and confirmation bias kicks in for the pharmacy staff.
This might explain that after using this system in Indiana for several years… it leads the country in Meth lab busts and continues to grows. Indiana also at the top of the list of pharmacy robberies.
The Indiana AG ( Greg Zoeller) keeps trying to bring out new programs.. like his bitter pill program http://www.in.gov/bitterpill/ to curtail the abuse of legal/illegal medications and other substances.
Maybe, if these bureaucrats would seek out those within healthcare as to how to address these issues … perhaps some progress could be made.. you are never going to eliminate all the abuse of some substances… just like you are never going to be able to close down all the jails and prisons.
But then we are working under the presumption that they are really trying to make progress.. or could they just going thru some motions and press releases to make the public believe that they are trying to make progress and in reality all they are trying to do is keeping the status quo and job security for those involved in fighting this war on drugs ? Why else would be fighting this war for ONE HUNDRED YEARS ?
Filed under: General Problems
The problem isn’t meth, marijuana, narcotics, legal or illegal. The problem goes so much deeper than that. It is a societal problem. We all have to embrace it, and try to find solutions to people who feel that they have to get “high” to hide from whatever pain they are suffering from. It’s not an easy answer, but you just can’t tell people to “say no to drugs”, when they have problems so deeply engrained, with no tools to help them! The problem is depression, poverty, joblessness, lack of affordable health care, and most important, lack of psychological/psychiatric care. There is no quick easy solution, but starting from the result instead of the cause will never fix a problem, just make it worse. The result is that people abuse drugs, alcohol, whatever they can get ahold of. The cause is the reason, be it abuse,(physical or mental), homelessness, mental illness, poverty, lack of support, I could go on and on. It’s like building more jails, instead of building more daycares. You have to start where the problem begins, not where it ends.
PP, you are right, it isn’t the drugs BUT then you lost me.
The problem isn’t drugs or addicts or any of the reasons you give for them becoming such. If we eliminated every problem you mentioned, there would still be addicts. Uber-rich kids are not downtrodden. They have everything they could ever want at their disposal for a happy life yet they find reasons to get high too (see Paris Hilton, any ‘rock’ or rap star, actor, etc). Turn on the tv you’ll see it every day. It’s human nature that a certain percentage of people will use mind altering substances, no matter what the circumstances are.
It has been a part of EVERY society throughout recorded time. Addicts have been around for centuries and will be here for how ever long this earth can support human life.
The REAL problem? A systematic power grab by big government at BOTH the State and Federal level using any and all means necessary to create and fuel a smokescreen to cover it up. It will work too as long as you believe it occurs because of the ‘addicts’, Terrorism, The War on Drugs, Illegal Immigration, Unemployment (now drug screening those who apply for unemployment benefits). I could go on but you guys get the idea.
PERSONALLY? I could give a d*** if someone wants to get high on meth. Anyone who would use a drug mixed up in some hillbilly’s bathtub out of everyday cleaning products and Pseudophed is beyond help IMO.
All you ever hear is ‘Its a free country’. Well I haven’t seen any signs to back up this assertion. More like ‘Its a free country’ IF you submit to the majority’s moral vision, give up every liberty ‘guaranteed’ by the Bill of Rights, and don’t ask questions (reasoning-we’re just trying to do our jobs, trust us it’s for YOUR OWN GOOD, we’ll protect you from X (X=enter boogy-man de jour here).
Repression NEVER works. You cannot legislate morality upon a populace. Ask the Soviet Union or study any regime, dictator, king, etc that tried to outlaw religion, drugs, alcohol, etc. In Indonesia, Singapore, other SE Asian countries drug trafficking is an offense punishable by death, yes death, they still have people involved in drugs. http://goseasia.about.com/od/travelplanning/a/seasia_drugs.htm
If that ‘ultimate solution’ doesn’t work to deter people, how in the heck are all these piddly little regulations going to stop ANYTHING? NOT happening.
They dont want to admit 80% of meth now comes fron SOUTH OF THE BORDER from the cartels even though Mexico banned pseudoephedrine. Oregon also an rx only state also still has a meth problem so apparently they’re heads are in the sand that rx only programs and NPLEx arent working, but ‘let’s keep doing the same thing and get that different result’ (insanity) and they sell this to the voters because it makes them look good and everyone else feel, better, except those legit people who are inconvenienced in purchasing for their allerigies and colds!!! Agian another example of the FAILURE OF THE WAR ON DRUGS!!!!
I live in Mississippi and we have a METH problem. We have had this problem for years. The first thing that impacted me as a pharmacist was having to put PSE products behind the counter and then get patients to sign to buy it. That did not seem to be enough, so PSE products are prescription only in the state. This has been in effect for about 2 years. But, we still have a METH problem.