Wanting pseudoephedrine makes you a criminal
The Australian government has further clamped down on the over-the-counter supply of medications that contain pseudoephedrine. They've even given their idea a catchy sounding name: "Project STOP".
I understand that they want to reduce the volume of methamphetamine being locally produced, but I really have to wonder if it's necessary for me to have my details taken when purchasing one box of non-prescription cold medication. The fact that I asked for something specifically containing pseudoephedrine no doubt made matters worse, but it's not my fault I'm an informed consumer ;)
I''d be curious to see if by allowing potential drug manufacturers to purchase medications containing pseudoephedrine (one box at a time) they actually reduced the volume of ice being made. How? Because the people would be tied up visiting multiple pharmacies to get their ingredients... so much so that they don't have time to cook up the drugs. Also, I wonder how many burglaries result in cases of Sudafed being lifted, now that it can't be bought legally in volume.
I don’t think it’s got anything to do with the government. The Pharmacy Guild thought it up. It’s precisely to stop people buying too much over a period of time and to stop drug runners (as they call people who go from pharmacy to pharmacy). It’s been a pretty effective system I think, but I don’t know the figures on burglaries. That would be interesting. Most pharmacies are pretty heavily secured though.
Actually, it was thought up by the Guild, the government then put funding towards the idea to get it off the ground. It was solely to “decrease the sale of pseudoephedrine for illicit use”. I’m sure that has been achieved, however it would be interesting to see some numbers.
While I’m on a hat trick of comments, they’re not recording your data because they think you’re a criminal. They have to apply the system to everyone or it wouldn’t work. You know that ;)
It does make me feel like crack addict trying to get some meds for my chronic sinusitis. At times i feel like explaining I had someone dig out chunks of flesh from my head and the medicine is necessary at times but its easier to just hand over my license.
The non-pseudo alternative drugs last for half as long and don’t seem as effective. I wonder if a non-pseudo drug developer had a hand in pushing policy to restrict pseudo usage? Good for business.
I think mainly all it does is either shift people onto another drug or lower the quality of the current drug called Ice.
There is always a market for drugs, so there will always be a reason to fill that market and therefore they’ll always find a drug to do it. Whether it’s called Ice and is actually weed killer … who knows.
Drugs should be mostly legal.
The calibre of pharmacy drug runners are quite likely to be already using weed killer, and sniffing petrol. I am surprised this is an issue for anyone :) You have to hand your licence over to a meathead to get into an event these days (at age 27). That would bother me more than at a pharmacy by a professional for a volume monitored item.
Ok out with it, which one of you guys was manufacturing ice and is harbouring a grudge?
The only thing that bothers me is that drugs are so expensive. All drugs.
It would actually be quite funny if they had no trouble making and distributing drugs I think they’d end up utting themselves out of business. In LA (I think) the crack price went down so much they stopped fighting over territory and it went away.
Me. Don’t tell the police.
Your secret is safe with the internet.
As an emergency department doctor, I have to say “Crystal Meth is the work of the devil and I wouldn’t wish that shit on my worst enemy”. There is no cure. It is addictive. I hear even the people who make it (might rhyme with ikie angs) don’t allow their members to take it as it fucks you up so bad. Many doctors miss the good old days of mass heroin addiction and availability; because back then there were effective treatments available for the main type of drug addiction. Drought and war have removed this, so the ice came in, all the addicts switched over and now a bunch of people who through a series of unfortunate events fell away from the cushy lives you and I lead are now in the unfortunate position of having swiss cheese for brains and now way of getting out, which they might have had a fighting chance of were they simply addicted to opiates. Violence (through the high and long-term psychosis) is also inherent in the effects of ice, and I personally believe that violent one-to-one crime is probably on the rise compared to the H days.
As a chronic sinusitis sufferer living in Victoria, I must say “gee you guys are lucky you just get to flash your ID to buy pseudoephidrine”. Most chemists in Victoria simply do not stock it as it is too risky as funnily enough, drug runners are often desperate, violent people, so if they no there physically isn’t any in stock they will go away. That leaves the rest of us in the predicament of needing to know which chemists do or don’t stock it or having to get a prescription, but PBS only covers certain archaic forms of the drug.
Sigh. Seeing both sides of an argument really takes the fun out of it.
wow my typing si reallly inaccutare.
The government, police and customs have also been surprisingly effective at preventing the illegal importation of opiates like heroin, causing the price to go up so addicts settle for meth, the cheaper option that can be made at home. So our law enforcement doing their jobs well has also contributed to the current problem.
I’m wondering if society was really all that crap when all of this stuff was legal ? Yes, all of it at some stage was completely legal. It was still frowned on, after all could you continue doing your job high on opium or heroine?
Legalisation just further creates a society where survival of the fittest is at play. The government doesn’t want that, for some reason they love to treat us all like children, all of the time.
I believe the results of such a social experiment you speak of ended with complete and total disintegration of society in China and some kind of war…maybe called something to do with opium…i forget…
I’m not sure how awesome my social experiment would turn out to be, it would probably have to be a staged thing. I just don’t see why I’m not allowed to have cheaper, higher quality drugs because some other person will get addicted to them. Hell maybe if it wasn’t so expensive it wouldn’t ruin their lives with debt etc anyway, also I always thought that if you start taking heroine your life was already screwed anyway if it was legalised and you bought it and it was tracked then maybe we’d know your life was fucked and you’d get help. Rather than some dealer thinking you’re their next gold mine.
As for the Opium Wars, they were economically driven and had nothing to do with the social impact of the drug. Also the 1800’s were very different times. You *could* argue that the direction of business has simply changed and rather than the west importing drugs into asia it is now asia importing into Australia :)
My original point still stands: when I went to buy these non-prescription drugs at the pharmacy I was examined in close detail because I knew what I wanted, by name.
In the future I’m simply going to say that the doctor specifically requested I get “Codral Original” because it contains “pseudo-something” and that I didn’t need a prescription because it’s over the counter.
Plus I like the buzz. It’s kinda like when I have speed. I wish someone would use whatever is in these and refine it, I reckon that’d be fun.
Anyway, yeah can I have the pseudo stuff ? Ta!