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I am an amateur photographer who enjoys spending a lot of time in the darkroom. As the rise of digital cameras has caused "darkroom technician" to turn from a
by jnovek 17y ago
I am an amateur photographer who enjoys spending a lot of time in the darkroom. As the rise of digital cameras has caused "darkroom technician" to turn from a profession to a hobby, some materials that once had pre-made formulations from Kodak or Ilford now have to be cooked up at home.
It has been increasingly difficult to get Sodium Hydroxide (lye), Potassium Permanganate and Potassium Dichromate. I actually had to register with the DEA to get Potassium Dichromate, even though I can't figure out what it's used for in the drug trade.
Although I'm usually a more or less rational person, part of me really is worried that some day I'm going to buy sodium hydroxide and a pack of pseudoephedrine on the same day and get raided at 3 AM.
- smhinsey 17y ago> Although I'm usually a more or less rational person For what it's worth, we are nowhere near that sort of real-time reporting for things like pseudoephedrine. At the pharmacy near me they are still having you sign a giant 3 ring binder when you buy pseudoephedrine.
- asciilifeform 17y agoJust wait for the next "Meth Prevention Act." Seriously. Do you really think that real-time reporting won't be imposed eventually? The powers-that-be already require prepaid debit cards (so you cannot make anonymous purchases on-line) and cell phones (no more anonymous calling) to be registered in this way.
- JabavuAdams 17y agoSounds like a business opportunity, if you don't mind being a Global-War-On-Everything-Industrial-Complex douche.
- smhinsey 17y agoi think if someone decided to lobby the issue such legislation would have a decent chance of making it into law, but you can't legislate engineering. real-time monitoring of all retail sales in the united states is quite an undertaking. and as smart as it may be to be concerned about government intervention into our lives, i think there are better outlets for that energy. [edit, thought better about some "no need to put words into my mouth" type stuff]
- Radix 17y agoGovernment is pushing ePrescribing pretty hard. It will happen some time after ePrescribing is universal. Some politician will wake up one day and say to themself, "Why we already have the ability to track this real time. We just need to force all e-prescribing systems to register whenever someone buys whatever-needs-monitoring."
- smhinsey 17y agohow does that help with OTC drugs, or do you mean that this will push those to require prescriptions too?
- asciilifeform 17y agoMy guess is that pharmacies will simply be barred from accepting cash. The credit card processors are already set up for bureaucrats to monitor at their leisure.
- Radix 17y agoIf they already have the system in place to track drugs prescribed by providers then it will be easier to require the pharmacys to tie your purchase to you on your OTC purchases. The pharmacys will already have the software and hardware in place. All it will take is a law to require all of the software vendors to comply.
- vondur 17y agoPotassium Dichromate is a fairly nasty chemical due to the face is has Chromium in a high oxidation state. They have pretty much written it out of Chemistry experiments in undergraduate chem courses.
- jnovek 17y agoI'm aware of its oxidation potential. Although I am not from a chemistry background, I do my best to use and store potentially dangerous chemicals as prescribed by their MSDS sheets. I use it for a printing-out-process called Gum Bichromate printing, and there isn't really a safer substitute sensitiser for this process that I'm aware of. The thing I'm not sure about is why I had to register with the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) to buy the stuff.
- ijuhytgjh 17y agoOfficial UK policy http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6e1225fa69b4.jpg http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6e1225fa69b4.j...