A Stitch in Haste

Back in July I blogged about a proposal to restrict the sale of decongestants containing pseudoephedrine -- which can be used to make methamphetamine -- to behind pharmacist counters. These proposals limit the quantity law-abiding citizens can buy, require them to show ID, and record their purchases for future use by law enforcement agencies.

Several states have passed similar restrictions, and now Congress is moving toward a federal rule.

The especially annoying part? It's part of the PATRIOT Act:

[O]fficials at the Food and Drug Administration have quietly fought such proposals, arguing that most methamphetamine is imported and that restricting cold medicines would lead to unneeded suffering among patients in need.
...
Dan Troy, former general counsel of the food and drug agency, countered that cold sufferers would have a harder time getting relief as a result of the legislation. "I think it's very sad when you punish the good and the needy because of a few bad actors," Mr. Troy said.
...
"The restrictions on Sudafed, although somewhat onerous, aren't that bad," Dr. William Schreiber, an internist in Louisville, Ky., where such restrictions are already in place, said, adding, "anything that goes about limiting the production of meth probably has to be done."

Read that last sentence again: anything that in any way reduces meth production by any amount "has to be done." Damn the costs, look only at the purported benefits, no matter how puny.

More:

Sales of pseudoephedrine products topped $580 million in 2004 and have not grown appreciably in recent years, suggesting that any diversion of the product for methamphetamine production is a relatively small part of overall sales.

Again, the image of meth chemists buying case after case, truckload after truckload, of Sudafed is a fallacy (dare one say a lie?).

Finally:

Sudafed and similar medicines are widely sold in convenience stores and pharmacies. The new legislation will probably mean that far fewer stores will offer the drugs, said Steve Francesco, an expert in over-the-counter drug marketing.

So an entire legal revenue stream for convenience stores, airport shops and countless other venues is summarily denied them in the name of the new "War on Meth." And countless millions of cold sufferers will now have to proceed, not to the nearest convenience store, but to a bona fide pharmacist (or, more likely, just stay home and suffer).

Because, again, the costs don't matter. No cost is too high, no measure unwarranted, if it might stop some meth chemists (no matter how few) somewhere (no matter how scarce) from producing some quantity (no matter how little) of meth.

After all, what's a little nasal congestion, right? (After all, Americans only suffer a billion colds a year.)