Pubdate: Thu, 14 Apr 2005
Source: Phoenix New Times (AZ)
Copyright: 2005 New Times, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/640
Author: John Dougherty
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

MORAL ABSURDITY

The Arizona Legislature Should Start Caring More About Children Than
Zygotes

Now let me get this straight.

It's okay for a pharmacist to refuse to fill a medical doctor's
prescription for a morning-after pill on religious grounds.

But there is no way the very same pharmacist should be required to put
cold pills containing pseudoephedrine -- the key ingredient for
trailer-trash brews of crystal meth -- behind the counter.

In other words, let's let druggists wield an unchecked moral veto on a
woman's right to choose.

But let's not make pharmacists do a little extra work when it comes to
a product that, when used to manufacture methamphetamine, is known to
kill kids and mess up unborn babies.

Absurd, right? Well, not to Arizona's crusading Republicans, who
piously control both the Arizona House and Senate as if they were a
papal conclave.

Under the Republican banner, the emergency abortion of a zygote
(that's a couple of cells along the way toward becoming a human being)
is verboten if the person behind the drug counter says so -- for
whatever reason.

But the reality that children are getting doused in mind-rotting
chemical hazes of sulfuric acid and rat poison wafting from fiberglass
bathtubs of crystal meth is just the unavoidable cost of doing business.

So much for protecting the helpless -- who are already
born.

What I'm talking about here is that Religious Right fanatics
dominating our Republican legislative leadership have rammed through
House Bill 2541 allowing health-care professionals -- including
pharmacists, for Christ's sake -- to refuse to supply emergency
contraceptives on religious or moral grounds.

"Not only do women have the right to choose, but so do the doctors and
pharmacists," spews Senator Dean Martin, sponsor of the overreaching
bill that has got to be unconstitutional.

Governor Janet Napolitano has strongly hinted that she will veto the
moronic idea. But unlike the Legislature's first budget proposal that
she rejected seconds after it landed on her desk, Napolitano hasn't
yet put the kibosh on this so-called "conscience" bill as this column
goes to press.

Meanwhile, Republican leaders -- including my favorite East Valley
Mormon kooks, Representative Russell Pearce, co-chairman of the House
Appropriations Committee, and Representative Eddie Farnsworth,
chairman of the House Judiciary Committee -- don't want anything to
get in the way of the bottom line.

Even if kids' lives are at stake.

Pearce and Farnsworth are against other legislation modeled after an
Oklahoma law approved last year that slashed the number of clandestine
meth labs operating in that state by 80 percent.

Arizona should pass a similar law before the Legislature adjourns,
because (unlike what Martin wants to do) this is an idea that makes
sense.

I'm normally not an advocate of drug-control laws. I think the War on
Drugs has been a miserable failure that has overwhelmed our criminal
justice system and needlessly turned regular, law-abiding folks into
felons.

Marijuana, for example, should be decriminalized to allow possession
of small amounts and even cultivation of a couple of plants for
personal consumption. This would deliver a huge blow to the drug
cartels making bank on prohibition.

At the same time, there should be draconian penalties for anyone
selling or distributing pot to minors. Just like there are for booze.

Crystal meth, however, falls into a different category, but not only
because it can really mess with your mind.

For many people, meth is simply overwhelming. It becomes the dominant
focus in life to the point that nothing else matters -- even the
children of users and manufacturers.

Unlike growing a few pot plants in the backyard, the manufacture of
crystal meth by brain-addled amateur chemists in makeshift labs is an
extremely dangerous endeavor. It is a huge problem that is exacting a
deadly and expensive toll on our society.

Meth labs are notoriously toxic places because of the chemical stew
used to manufacture the drug. Children have been routinely poisoned by
adults who are in hyperdrive and oblivious to the noxious chemicals
they are conjuring up.

In the past four years, police have busted more than 1,200 meth labs
in Arizona. During this same period, more than 362 children have been
rescued from such labs. Many have been placed into foster homes. Many
of these kids have tested positive for meth.

The state picked up five more kids last week when a police task force
raided two homes. In one case, an 18-month-old boy inside a house near
104th Avenue and Camelback Road was found just feet away from a batch
of meth that was emitting high levels of extremely dangerous chemicals
into the air.

I'm sure cops have only busted a fraction of the number of tweakers
cranking out crank. Which means thousands of children are regularly
exposed to deadly chemicals released during the manufacture of the
drug.

There's no way to restrict the knowledge of how to make meth. Anyone
can get a handy recipe for cooking it over the Internet.

The only way to put at least a temporary cork in the meth trade is to
reduce the supply of the key ingredient -- pills containing
pseudoephedrine.

Democratic Attorney General Terry Goddard has vigorously backed the
Oklahoma-style bill introduced by moderate Republican Representative
Tom O'Halleran of Sedona. At least 29 states are debating similar
legislation.

"Iowa, Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas have all passed the Oklahoma
provision in the last couple of weeks," a clearly frustrated Goddard
tells me. "Interestingly, there hasn't been a single legislative vote
against it in those states. Yet we can't even get a vote on our bill
in Arizona."

Pearce and Farnsworth refused to allow O'Halleran's bill to be heard
in their respective committees, which would have killed it for this
session. Except that O'Halleran resurrected it by inserting language
into another bill that is awaiting a hearing in the House Rules Committee.

O'Halleran's language would require any medication (typically cold
remedies) containing pseudoephedrine in pill form to be pulled off
shelves and sold only by licensed pharmacists. Just pills containing
pseudoephedrine can be used to cook meth.

Medications containing pseudoephedrine in gel or liquid forms would be
exempt from the law and remain on the shelves of grocery stores and
convenience markets.

The legislation would limit the amount of pseudoephedrine pills that
could be sold to consumers. But the language would still allow any one
customer to buy more pseudoephedrine in a month -- 367 30-milligram
tablets -- than I've consumed in my entire life.

Under the current law, consumers can buy virtually unlimited amounts
of cold pills.

The legislation would also require purchasers of pseudoephedrine pills
to show photo identification and sign a log book that would be
available to law enforcement.

Controlling the sale of pseudoephedrine is supported by more than 40
organizations in Arizona representing cops, prosecutors, firefighters,
labor unions, children's groups and mental-health advocates. Several
religious groups are also behind the legislation -- including the
Arizona Interfaith Network.

Yet it continues to languish in the final weeks of this session
because ultra-conservative Republicans like Pearce and Farnsworth
don't want to impinge on the free market and upset powerful business
interests.

Retail drug stores and their legal dope purveyors are vigorously
opposing the proposed law, claiming it would put an unnecessary burden
on pharmacists. What a crock! I don't see how saying grace over one
more drug is going to ruin a pharmacist's day.

The real issue is that drug companies and drugstores don't want to do
anything that might reduce profits generated by the sale of
pseudoephedrine.

Opponents also claim parents in rural areas with a limited number of
pharmacies might be inconvenienced if they are restricted in buying
cold remedies to only when pharmacy counters of drugstores are open.

This, of course, is ridiculous. As I said before, who's going to need
more than 367 pills per month? Besides, any customer can always go to
a 24-hour grocery store and buy pseudoephedrine in liquid form.

Since there is no good reason to oppose the proposed law, the
lobbyists for retailers and pharmaceutical companies are resorting to
lame anti-gun-control-type sloganeering to deflect attention from the
fact that they are selling and manufacturing a product that is easily
transformed into a potentially deadly drug.

"They [retailers and drug companies] are not the bad guys," Mike
Gardner, a lobbyist for the Consumer Healthcare Products Association,
told the Arizona Capitol Times. "We need to focus on people who are
manufacturing, producing and selling methamphetamines. Let's not go
overboard just because it's a noble goal."

Consider the source. Of course they're the bad guys, along with the
meth cooks.

O'Halleran's legislation would not eliminate meth consumption in
Arizona -- 75 percent of the drug entering Arizona comes from super
labs in Mexico. But it would put a major crimp in the operation of
clandestine meth labs fouling our state.

The legislation is far from going overboard. It's common sense. Not
only would it reduce the number of meth labs because a basic
ingredient would be harder to come by, Goddard believes it would put a
dent in crime related to the skyrocketing addiction to meth in Arizona.

"Meth poisons neighborhoods, it poisons children, and it's closely
connected to a long list of other crimes -- including domestic abuse,
child neglect, burglary, auto theft, identify theft and
counterfeiting," Goddard says.

If anything, the new law would not go far enough in identifying
products that can be easily purchased to make meth.

News of the possible state control of pseudoephedrine has meth cooks
looking at other options. A surprisingly simple meth synthesis is
based on the amino acid phenylalanine, available at health-food stores
at a cost of $14 for 100 tablets.

Note to Goddard and O'Halleran: Get some legislation going to address
phenylalanine, too.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin