All laws have teeth by canttakesky

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

All laws have teeth

POSTED BY: CANTTAKESKY
UPDATED: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 14:22
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Monday, March 28, 2011 3:48 PM

Quote:
It's been five years since the feds took aim at nasal decongestant. Under George Bush, a normal part of everyday civilized life became a criminal act, namely the over-the-counter purchase of Sudafed and many other products containing pseudoephedrine. You can get it now, but it is seriously rationed. You have to present your driver's license and no one without one may purchase it. The limits on quantities you are permitted to purchase fall far below the recommended dosage, and buyers rarely know when they are buying too much....

...So, as you already know, my husband and I are the only ones in our family who can buy Sudafed. I will and have been the first to admit that in order to keep enough of the medicine for all of us, both my husband and I made purchases from more than one drug store. I knew we were exceeding our allotted amount but I also knew that the code of Alabama stated that purchasing over the allowed 6 grams per month was only unlawful "with intent to manufacture." So, since we had no intent to manufacture anything, I didn't see it as we were breaking the law.

In March of this year, local news media released word that a law was passed that would create a statewide database for all businesses selling pseudoephedrine so that customers could not bypass the limit by going from one pharmacy to another. That was the extent of the press release related to that new law. About the middle of May, my husband and I learned the hard way that they had conveniently left out a very important part of that new law when announcing it to the public. Apparently, "with intent to manufacture" had been dropped from the Alabama law regarding pseudoephedrine purchases. I'm sure you can easily guess the rest of the story. He and I were arrested for "buy/sale precursor chemicals" which on the first offense is a Class C Misdemeanor. My husband is a USMC veteran so he has a criminal record (bar fights, etc.) but never any drug charges. I have never had so much as a speeding ticket and I'm a criminal justice major in college....

War on Drugs. Mmmm, good stuff.

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Monday, March 28, 2011 4:00 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

It's only a war on the drugs you don't have to buy a prescription for.

"Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I am not a trade unionist..."

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Monday, March 28, 2011 5:31 PM

HARDWARE

The war on some drugs.

The more I get to know people the more I like my dogs.

...and he that has no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. Luke 22:36

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Monday, March 28, 2011 5:40 PM

CANTTAKESKY

Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
It's only a war on the drugs you don't have to buy a prescription for.

Exactly. War on all drugs you don't get from our authorized pushers, I mean, distributors.

Does anyone on this board support the War on Drugs?

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Monday, March 28, 2011 5:43 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

WAAAaaaaay back when - decades ago - you could get 'dry gas' (diethyl ether) from the gas station for your gas tank for winter (it mixes the inevitable water in your gas tank with the gasoline and keeps the water from freezing up in your fuel lines). Then somebody noticed that it was a really good chemical for making drugs. At some point in the 70's you stopped being able to buy it.

Same story - different date.

BTW - while trying to avert a quickly-moving asthma attack I took 2 cups of coffee (has theobromine), 2 benadryl and 2 sudafed - and the sudafed sent my heart into a complete tizzy. It was the first, and so far the only, ambulance ride I've ever taken.

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Monday, March 28, 2011 7:42 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Kiki, was that recently or are you relating something that happened a while back. If it was recently I hope you are feeling better now.

I'm okay with the current law, at least the law for my state, regarding this, I hear a lot less about Meth Watch on the news than I used to. Obviously I think people should be able to get ahold of the medicine if they need it, so I'm glad there's still some access to it. If people weren't so foolish we wouldn't have to even waste our energy on these kinds of rules. People are dumb, making rutted up stuff and using it to excess, its all fouled up if you ask me. I've always thought that meth would be the worst street drug to take because it is just plain rutted up, toxic etc. If it actually served a purpose besides getting high I might have softer opinions on it. Should it be the government's no. 1 priority? No.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011 3:28 AM

DREAMTROVE

Quote:
Originally posted by canttakesky:
Does anyone on this board support the War on Drugs?

no, I don't think so.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011 4:05 AM

FIVVER

As one who lives on Sudafed during Atlanta's pollen season, yeah, it's a pain in the ass. I love having to prove I'm not a criminal.

But it's not just the drug war. The effing greenies are in it too. Those of us with asthma are getting nailed also. Those emergency rescue inhalers we NEED are formulated with, OMG, cfcs. Primatine mist, the only otc inhaler is going away this year and the expensive prescription ones are having to be reformulated into a less effective medication.

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011 5:13 AM

BYTEMITE

You mixed two stimulants and a depressant? Erg. No wonder you had to go to the hospital. Good thing you're okay now.

Every June, there's some tree that grows in the valley that blooms, and if I get near one the pollen closes up my throat and knocks me out. When it starts all I can do to reverse it is get away to a safe distance. I am allergic to cottonwood, but that's not it. I really should probably figure this one out, but it's hard to make botanical observations while unconscious.

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011 11:55 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

The "war on drugs" is an expensive joke. The term was first used by Nixon, but was just a continuation of drug prohibition policies in the U.S. which stretched back to the year 1914. The first U.S. law which restricted the distribution and use of certain drugs was the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914. Reagan made it one of his raisons d’etre, big time, and things went downhill from there.

At one time marijuana was PRESCRIBED by doctors for sleep problems, nausea, eating difficulties and more. Then it was made illegal--AND placed in the same category (Schedule 1, meaning little to no use), strong potential for abuse/addiction, and danger to persons using it. It is classified in the same way as Meth, and many other lethal substances, unlike marijuana. Even Cocaine and Heroin, enjoy Shcedule II classification. Most of us know this, and it points out the idiocy of the war on drugs where marijuana is concerned.

The war on drugs is an expensive boondoggle, but it makes money for some:

It benefits the private prison industry. If the War on Drugs ended there would suddenly be more than enough prisons to hold the actual criminals (rapists, murderers, thieves etc.). Subsequently, there would be no push to privatize prisons based on a lack of space.

Juvenile gangs get their primary source of funding from illegal drugs, and they use it as a recruiting tool for members.

It make big-time GOVERNMENT money (as in yours and mine) to pay for courts, cops, judges, prosecutors, etc., which we wouldn’t NEED if we weren’t prosecuting personal drug use.

It benefits politicians who, by talking tough on drugs, get re-elected---whether they do anything, or even intend to do anything, about enforcement.

It has expanded bureaucracies enormously, again with OUR money.

The primary source of funding for terrorist organizations is drugs; the primary demand for illegal drugs comes from America.

(Details on some of this, from a Judge, at

)

It’s a farce just like prohibition, and as useless and expensive as anything our government does.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011 12:07 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

(Threadjack)Byte: That tree you mentioned...does it have yellow blooms? If so, it might be Acacia; we have tons and TONS of them around here, and the minute the start blooming, I remember the severe asthma I used to have as a child (I was hospitalized numerous times, starting just after birth--it was "cured" by several years in Afghanistan's desert climate and never came back, but I've never forgotten!). They're very pretty trees, but deadly to those with allergies and asthma.

They're found in the Southwest, from CA, AZ, NM, TX to Mexico and look like this:

There are many different types of acacia, especially in Africa, but the yellow ones were the ones I always dreaded.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011 3:03 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

I agree that it is stupid that marijuana is classified equally to meth, doesn't make sense. After all it can help with chronic pain and so forth.

People with any history of, or known predisposition to, mental health differences shouldn't use it though, sometimes if you are suceptable to ending up with mental health differences it can bring it out in you if you use it. It doesn't _cause the mental health troubles as far as they know, but it can _bring them out if you have a predisposition to them, family history etc.

But I don't think of it as equal to meth.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011 3:12 PM

BYTEMITE

:o

I think it might be. I remember lots of small yellow blossoms. Thanks Niki.

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Wednesday, March 30, 2011 11:48 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Yup, I'll bet that's the one. I notice it every Spring and shudder inwardly in memory. Yuck.

Riona, that depends. I don't think dope in and of itself can cause a mental disorder to "manifest", I think it takes something much more dramatic or some drug much more severe to do so. I've never heard of it happening, anyway.

For those of us who have already manifested, there are two sides to the coin. I use marijuana legally BECAUSE I'm bipolar--I also now use it for pain, but I originally got it as an "evening cocktail" to calm down and help me go to sleep. Choey, on the other hand, can't use it at all, it makes her nauseous (funny since nausea is one of the things it's used to treat!) and anxious...that one makes perfect sense, the main symptom of her Bipolar I IS anxiety, which marijuana can definitely increase in some.

I think, like everything, it depends on the person, the amount, the frequency, and all those other little things that make us individuals--in other words, just like every other psychotropic they prescribe for us!

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Wednesday, March 30, 2011 2:22 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

I've just heard too many stories in my work and parents and peers that sound like "Well I was a little depressed but then I started using marijuana and got realllllly paranoid and then everything got rutted up". I saw an interesting documentary made in Australia about this too, I can't remember the name but if its on again I'll try and let ya know. Yes everyone is different but I know that, having seen enough of it I certainly wouldn't risk giving it a go, even in brownies. :) But then there are the people who do it and have no trouble. I'm glad it isn't harmful for you Niki.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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