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New meth formula avoids anti-drug laws
- ars 17y agoThis could be really bad: More people using them. It could also be really good (well better in some ways anyway): No more external issues of money, and crime, that are associated with this.
- tsally 17y agoThere's nothing good about meth, period. I'm all about letting people do what they want in private, but meth is scary shit. Legalizing it would be like letting people own rocket launchers.
- IsaacSchlueter 17y agoExcept, rocket launchers are for shooting at other people. Meth is mostly about self destruction. Granted, tweakers tend to be dicks, but still, your analogy is just a little bit hyperbolic. We should all have the right to destroy ourselves however we see fit. Also, wtf? You're telling me I can't have a rocket launcher now!?
- tsally 17y agoWe should all have the right to destroy ourselves however we see fit. I definitely agree with you on this point, however exclusive self destruction is not possible in the vast majority of cases. Anyone that is financially or emotionally dependent on an addict experiences some destruction when they destroy themselves. If there is anyone that has no connections to family, friends, companies, or country, I agree, they should be allowed to do meth. I don't think there is anyone like this though. ;-)
- jrockway 17y agoAdults should be able to emotionally hurt whomever they want. If someone's parents are religious fundamentalists, by your logic, it should be illegal for the kid to become an atheist. Sorry, that is none of the State's business. That is a personal issue between three people. Similarly, using meth is a personal issue for the meth user. (The only reason people make it at home and blow up their buildings is because it's illegal to manufacture it safely. If you could go to Walgreens and buy your meth, you can bet that there would not be many exploding meth labs. This "problem" is caused by its "solution".)
- tsally 17y agoI don't buy it. Adult's are not allowed to emotionally hurt their kids. Various child abuse laws cover this and our laws do indeed say that it is the State's business. You can't show me hard evidence that meth users usually act in emotionally (and financially) responsible ways; adults with dependents using meth is clearly wrong. As for kids, well, kids simply don't have a developed enough brain to make proper decisions about a substance as addictive as meth. The argument here is purely biological and doesn't really need a defense. I'll preempt the usual counter argument by saying that if we could quantify decision making ability, I'd be all for using that instead of age. But age is the best we've got right now. As I said before, if it doesn't affect anyone else I don't really care what you do. Parents can do whatever they want (drugs or otherwise) if it doesn't affect their kids or other dependents. In addition, anyone with a job needs to consider their responsibility to their company. But hey, if there's someone where none of these connections apply, s/he can do whatever they want. I certainly wont judge.
- rizzn 17y agoOnly slightly hyperbolic. As someone who's spent more time than he'd care to admit in East Texas (a major manufacturing and distribution center for illegal meth), people that make this stuff do it in their homes, and eventually tweak out and blow up the neighborhood. It happens a lot more than you'd think... ... not to mention, habitual usage doesn't exactly lead to safe behavior, which is inflicted on others. I'm not a drug regulation advocate, but it's important not to paint Meth as a victimless drug. The first target may be yourself when you use it, but the collateral damage is not insubstantial. A better analogy than a rocket launcher might be hand grenades, if we're sticking to small armaments as the analogy.
- tptacek 17y agoFantastic. Now we can buy real cold medicine again, right? Presumably right after we're allowed to carry water onto airplanes.
- Devilboy 17y agoI stopped buying cold and flu mixtures when they decided to substitute pseudo-ephedrine with whatever that useless placebo is that they use now.
- jrockway 17y agoI still buy the real pseudoephedrine. It is a pain to do, involving secret databases and showing your Papers, but still possible. This is a perfect reason to have a fake ID, BTW. Buy as much as you want, it's not your problem.
- tptacek 17y agoI've never had a cold bad enough to risk a day in jail over.
- cdibona 17y agoI wonder what would happen if they added mentos to the mix...
- voisine 17y agoMost of the article is about how dangerous the manufacture of the stuff is... who's fault is that, dumbass? There are plenty of things that are dangerous to manufacture that we manage to produce safely in massive quantities every day. Stop using force against people engaged in voluntary exchanges and the problem is solved. You don't hear about people's houses blowing up from bathtub gin operations anymore do you?
- tsally 17y agoRight, the government is responsible for the deaths of the people who die in meth lab explosions. That's pretty twisted logic.
- voisine 17y agoNot directly, but they are absolutely causing the situation, just as they were at fault for the rise of the American mob during prohibition. Using violence against adults engaged in voluntary exchange is evil and has evil consequences.
- tsally 17y agoThe government isn't causing the situation, the dumbasses who choose to take a chemically addictive substance are causing the problem. You don't have the right to do whatever you want in this country if it's going to fuck up everything around you. Using violence against adults engaged in voluntary exchange is evil and has evil consequences. Not really. There are certain thing that should be allowed in society and certain things that shouldn't. I personally believe that alcohol and non addictive substances should be. Meth and other chemically addictive substances, plastic explosives, and automatic weapons shouldn't be. The key here is impact on others. If whatever you want to exchange is going to have a significant negative impact on those around you, it shouldn't be allowed. Smoking is public places? Nope. Can you smoke in your car by yourself? Sure. Same concept applies to everything we do. It's the price you pay for living in a civilized society. If you want to do meth and hunt deer with a 50 cal, you can always move to an empty island or a large desert. I personally think the benefits of staying a part of a society outweigh the costs, and that's why I'm still here.
- jrockway 17y agoThis is probably the end of over-the-counter pseudoephedrine. Why let people have a safe and effective nasal decongestant when a few people could make ILLEGAL drugs with it!? (Incidentally, you can't buy pipe anymore, since you could use it to make a pipe bomb. Oh wait, no. Doing that is still fine. Killing others is fine, but using drugs is just wrong!) Also, does anyone have any data on how making pseudoephedrine a pain to buy has reduced meth usage? For some reason, I doubt it has.
- dtf 17y ago"You have to understand going in that drugs are an evolutionary process ... The day after we pass a law, they are going to look for ways to circumvent that." The law of unintended consequences. I was recently reading about cocaine production in South America. The DEA pressured Bolivia into putting restricting the so-called "precursor chemicals" needed to convert cocaine paste into cocaine powder. As a result, Bolivia stopped manufacturing and exporting powder all by itself, and started exporting its paste to the many factories which sprung up in neighbouring Uruguay and Argentina. This turned out to be a much better arrangement - not only did these industrial countries have access to high grade chemicals and lab equipment, they also had far better shipping routes. As a "bonus", a thriving secondary market in the production residues (an impure but highly addictive form of crack, locally known as "Paco") sprang up around the labs, enslaving local populations as badly as any meth town. Creativity loves constraints.