Tuesday, June 20, 2006

The Decongestant Times, Vol. 3

Safeway, which previously foreswore selling such infamous products as Claritin-D, is now peddling it, but according to the lady at the pharm desk not for long. And in keeping with her prognostication, the price label under the little chits for the product reads "while supplies last." The discount expires July 1.

The pharm lady also suggested the drug might soon be by prescription only, by the above date in Oregon and "soon after" in Washington.

OK, but I don't think putting the drugs in Prescriptionland is really going to make a difference in the "war" on meth. In the long run, all this appears likely to do is put the meth labs in Mexico and add one more drug to the well-developed supply lines.

This doesn't seem like a very good plan, but maybe that's because it isn't part of a plan, just a piecemeal take-a-stand campaign by states that don't want meth labs in their back yards. That fits from a parochial standpoint, but is irresponsible and doomed from any other sensible point of view.

It seems to me that a more rational course of action would be to attack the demand side of methamphetamines, which some people - notably the Montana Meth Project - do.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Amazing that Montana of all places is the forward thinking entity in this sad affair. My home state may seem like a backwards jerk water to many, but I think this shows it has more redeaming qualities than at first glance (no highway speed limit experiment aside). MT even passed a law to outlaw smoking in bars! I think there are a lot more people than Virgil who are up in arms about that though. Thanks for the info. You are as always a great source for fascinating factoids :-)