5 ms·
Fantastic write up. I think the biggest takeaway for me is just how insanely ineffective banning pseudoephedrine over the counter was. Price went down, usage
by SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
Fantastic write up.
I think the biggest takeaway for me is just how insanely ineffective banning pseudoephedrine over the counter was.
Price went down, usage went up overdose went up, seizures went up, the production just changed quickly and there wasn’t even a blip.
Billions of uses of bullshit decongestant products that didn’t work at all… and to get the good stuff you still need to buy it from behind the counter and give ID.
- boldlybold 5mo agoThat's all correct, and nobody seems to care. Nobody is ever going to improve the system, and us law abiding citizens are left with the consequences.
- nerdsniper 5mo agoThe other day I needed pseudoephedrine, so I asked for one box of instant tablets and one box of extended release capsules. The store said they’re only allowed to sell me one box so I had to choose. I’m so glad these policies made it so meth isn’t super easy to find anymore. Oh wait, meth is still dirt cheap fucking everywhere, but now I also can’t get effective cold medicine either. Can we please just admit this policy doesn’t have any effect on the meth supply curve and please put pseudoephedrine back in Dayquil?
- 15155 5mo agohttps://improbable.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Pseudoephedrine.pdf https://improbable.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Pseudoephe...
- nerdsniper 5mo agoAhahhaha thank you for this, absolutely hilarious.
- BenjiWiebe 5mo agoSometime when you don't need it, pick up a box of whichever kind of sudafed you need to have a stock of both extended/regular.
- LocalH 5mo agoHuman society has a massive issue with blindness towards n-order effects (they barely consider second-order effects, never mind thinking further out)
- meowkit 5mo agoI don't think its innate though - most people I've met can think of higher order consequences or at least understand them. The real issue is actually measuring results. I think we have to design society to factor higher order effects in. That means a fundamentally new approach to things like voting and tracking accountability. Is it even possible? Who knows. Sometimes I think our problems have outstripped individual life spans which makes them intractable.
- fc417fc802 5mo agoPeople only see them when they're being objective. My impression is that most people spend most of their time worrying about social status and engaging in tribalism meaning society on the whole is either blind to them or more likely will make up an answer that suits them.
- kevinsync 5mo agoThrowback to A Simple and Convenient Synthesis of Pseudoephedrine From N-Methylamphetamine [0] [1], a 2012 paper describing how to synthesize Sudafed from meth lol [0] https://improbable.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Pseudoephedrine.pdf https://improbable.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Pseudoephe... [1] https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/pseudephedrine-made-easy-kind https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/pseudephedrine-mad...
- Aurornis 5mo ago> banning pseudoephedrine over the counter was. In many states it wasn’t banned. It just moved behind the counter and you could only by a limited amount per month. Which was actually fantastically good for those of us who actually need it, because this made it available again instead of the empty shelves.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- 15155 5mo ago> insanely ineffective banning pseudoephedrine Limiting pseudoephedrine need not have effect on overall quantity to have huge positive societal effects. More P2P in industrial laboratories means less DIY Birch reductions in a soda bottle.