Pubdate: Sun, 17 Feb 2013
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Debra J. Saunders
Page: E3

GOD BLESS YOU, SEN. FEINSTEIN

Sen. Dianne Feinstein began her war on allergy and cold sufferers in
2005. In an effort to prevent smalltime dealers from buying allergy
and cold drugs and cooking them into methamphetamine, she pushed
through legislation requiring consumers to show identification before
purchasing products with pseudoephedrine - otherwise known as the good
allergy drugs, known only to those who know enough to ask for them.

Now Feinstein wants to make you get a prescription from a doctor
before you buy these drugs.

In 2005, I thought Feinstein's Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act
wrongly punished law-abiding citizens by limiting their access to
over-the-counter medications. A spokesman for Di-Fi told me the
legislation would prompt the pharmaceutical industry to find
"alternatives to pseudoephedrine."

The industry found those alternatives. They just don't work as well as
the old stuff. Nonetheless, Feinstein, a committed drug warrior,
thought the downside for allergy and cold sufferers was worth the trade-off.

Now she's at it again. The Government Accountability Office reported a
decrease in meth lab incidents in Oregon and Mississippi after those
states passed laws requiring purchasers to present a doctor's
prescription.

Feinstein crowed, "It's time to redouble our efforts to prevent these
products from falling into the wrong hands by expanding these
commonsense laws to all 50 states."

That's right. You'd have to contact a doctor because Feinstein thinks
her 2005 law didn't do enough.

The drug trade has shown itself crafty in maneuvering around drug
laws. The 2005 law required a buyer to show a driver's license.
Would-be manufacturers started "smurfing" - sending recruits to
multiple retailers to buy pills. Users started using the "shake and
bake" method to produce small batches of meth in 2-liter plastic jugs.

The biggest beneficiaries of the Feinstein law, said Bill Piper of the
anti-drug-war Drug Policy Alliance, are Mexican drug cartels -
Washington stomped on their competition. The Drug Enforcement
Administration estimates that Mexico supplies as much as 80 percent of
the methamphetamine in the United States.

Thus a decline in meth lab incidents doesn't indicate a decline in
methamphetamine use. According to a state report, Oregon's
methamphetamine use "remains at a high level in the state," and 61
percent of Oregon law enforcement officers see methamphetamine as
their area's greatest drug threat. California, Washington, Idaho and
Nevada also experienced drops in meth lab incidents.

"We want to stop crime, but we don't want to force busy families to
have to take time off work to see a doctor," sighed Elizabeth
Funderburk of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association. Actually,
cold sufferers could call their doctors to get a prescription, and
maybe they'd get one without much delay or expense. But because a
prescription requirement won't hamper Mexican cartels, why stick it to
lawabiding Americans?
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MAP posted-by: Matt