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The Meth Act Does Not Belong in the Patriot Act

By Jeralyn, Section Legislation
Posted on Wed Dec 14, 2005 at 11:20:08 PM EST
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The House-passed version of the Patriot Act renewal legislation includes the Meth Act. The New York Times reports:

Under the proposal, Sudafed and similar medicines would have to be under lock and key in stores. Buyers would have to sign a sheet and show a driver's license. Purchases would be limited to one box a day and three boxes a month.

This has nothing to do with terrorism. Poor people and the elderly who don't drive won't have driver's licenses to show. Neither will undocumented residents.

Mike Krause of Colorado's Independence Institute reported:

Scott Burns, Deputy Director of the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) recently contradicted the “epidemic” rhetoric, telling a Congressional sub-committee that America’s estimated 1.5 million methamphetamine users make up only 8% of the country’s estimated 19 million drug users.

Check out the New York Time's John Tierney on the meth myth and Reason's Jacob Sullum here and in Speed Bumps at the Pharmacy. Also, Radly Balko explains why restricting cold pills won't curb meth use.

There is no crisis. Cold pills do not equate to terrorism. Tell your senators to just say no to the meth act.

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    The Meth Act Does Not Belong in the Patriot Act | 12 comments (12 topical)
    Re: The Meth Act Does Not Belong in the Patriot A (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:07:02 PM EST
    Oh, christ. What about those of us with chronic sinusitis, who consume Sudafed (the non-drying stuff, thanks) like it's candy?

    Re: The Meth Act Does Not Belong in the Patriot A (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:07:02 PM EST
    Those Drug Warriors are so good at slipping their dirt into larger pieces of legislation. (See: Sen. Joe Biden slipping the RAVE Act into the Amber Alert bill a few years ago, and Rep. Mark Souder (also the culprit here this time) slipping his financial aid ban for drug offenders into the 1998 Higher Education Act Amendments). At least we've got them to the point where they can't debate and pass this garbage on the merits of the drug provisions themselves - they have to go about it in a covert way. IMO, that really says something about the progress the reform movement is making. We're really starting to win the public opinion battle. Now if we can only get a few of these b*stards un-elected, maybe legislators will start to get the message!

    Re: The Meth Act Does Not Belong in the Patriot A (none / 0) (#3)
    by SeeEmDee on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:07:02 PM EST
    Think of it this way, gents: A large part of the reason why the War on Some Drugs has trundled along and crushed so many under it's treads is that, despite the millions whose lives it has destroyed, those millions are still a small minority compared to the rest of the population. This, despite the fact that it has cost the taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and trashed many rights once thought inviolable. Because so long as the effect was not felt by the average person in an immediately painful way, they were not even aware of how much the DrugWar gouges them. That's about to change. The old saying of "Misery loves company." is about to become painfully true. When Joe Sixpack comes down with a raging case of post-nasal drip, he's going to find out what a personal cost this latest turn of the DrugWar screw will have...and it won't hurt to remind these indignant cold sufferers just who was a legislative accessory in exacerbating their pain.

    Re: The Meth Act Does Not Belong in the Patriot A (none / 0) (#4)
    by Edger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:07:02 PM EST
    SeeEmDee, Maybe there is a silver lining in the cloud after all is said and done. I hope so. At the same time I wonder... AS the old saying goes "you don't know what you've got, till it's gone" I'm trying to think of an example of a society that managed to recover it's freedoms and rights after giving them up... Can you think of one?

    Re: The Meth Act Does Not Belong in the Patriot A (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:07:02 PM EST
    It's a bad piece of legislation and the proposed amendment make it even worse. I posted a summary of some of the stranger proposed provisions at my blog. The war on "terror" is not worth the loss of our valued freedoms.

    Re: The Meth Act Does Not Belong in the Patriot A (none / 0) (#6)
    by Edger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:07:02 PM EST
    I fully agree that "The Meth Act Does Not Belong in the Patriot Act" and that it has nothing to do with terrorism. As important as it is to rebel against including these kinds of things in the act, arguing against any inclusions to the act is only fighting symptoms, not fighting the disease. In fact, nothing belongs in the "Patriot Act", and that the act itself should not exist, and has no place in a free society. The only way it can be supported is the same way it was created, by the selling and continual fanning of the fear of terrorism to justify it. Until this fear is addressed, and enough people, including and most especially legislators, begin on a personal level in their own lives to realize that the fear is a sham and phantom fear, the disease cannot be routed. Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of the American Empire. Scare Tactics: The politics of fear and persuasion in America today, and why Americans consistently fear the wrong things:
    What are the odds that you will die in a terrorist attack? Answer: Minuscule. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the odds are about 1 in 88,000. The odds of dying from falling off a ladder are 1 in 10,010. Even in 2001, automobile crashes killed 15 times more Americans than terrorism. ... It seems that scientists have estimated that there is a 1 in six million chance that an animal like the pig could mutate and evolve into a creature that could fly. (And many think the missing dinosaurs accomplished exactly that, and are now still with us as birds.) Coincidentally, that is the exact same odds you have of dying at the hands of the terrorists that pose such a grave and imminent threat to America, even if they do pull off another 9-11 scale attack…Yup… “when pigs fly.”


    Re: The Meth Act Does Not Belong in the Patriot A (none / 0) (#7)
    by cpinva on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:07:02 PM EST
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