Upstream. A Mohawk Valley Blogzine.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Is Tracking Sudafed A Patriotic Act?

It’s old news, but I didn’t know about it until I went to Rite-Aid in Amsterdam recently to buy some Sudafed. As someone who suffers from chronic sinusitis I rely on Sudafed. Sudafed is no longer stocked on the shelf. You have to wait in line at the pharmacy to buy it. That wouldn’t be so bad, except that you have to show the pharmacist your license, sign for the medicine, and your purchase is recorded in a database. You are also limited as to how much you can purchase each month.

Sudafed and its generic equivalent pseudoephedrine are key ingredients in the illegal manufacture of meth. The relatively new database of Sudafed users is part of the government’s war on drugs, and became law as a rider to the renewed Patriot Act.

If you read this blog regularly, I am sure you can guess how I feel about this. Rather than give my opinion, however, you can read the pros and cons here.

Apparently, some pharmacies have stopped selling Sudafed rather than deal with the information gathering required by law.


1 Comments:

  • ah, the continued consequences of fighting drug prohibition...our banks track large sums of money, our pharmacies track large sums of over-the-counter drugs, our power companies watch the electric meters closely...heck, didn't we go thru similiar unntended consequences back in the 1920s?
    Ironic, too, that during prohibition, um, I mean, ALCOHOL prohibition, NY Governor Al Smith told the Feds that he wouldn't help them fight their prohibition...here we are, 80 yrs later, and a new org is born, just like the Women's Org for National Prohibition Repeal, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition is calling for an end to this failed policy. Comprised of cops, judges, prosecutors and others in the criminal justice system as well as concerned citizens, LEAP explains to the masses that drug prohibition is the cause of many of the problems we experience, not the drugs.
    http://www.leap.cc

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:12 PM  

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