Washington City Paper’s Ryan Grim just went to town on the Washington Post in the one of the best articles I’ve read on the nonsensical hype over crystal meth.
One possible explanation for the flat national rate of meth use and the lack of a serious local problem could be that the drug is not very addictive. A recent federal survey showed that of the 12 million people who had used meth in their lifetime, only 1 in 10 had used it in the past year. Only 1 in 25 had used it in the past 30 days.
Despite the evidence, health officials are also pushing for legislation that would restrict the sale of cold medications that contain pseudoephedrine, one of the ingredients used to manufacture meth. Virginia, like many states across the country, limits such sales, but Maryland and the District do not.
As I’ve mentioned before, I think the efforts to limit over-the-counter sales of products with pseudoephedrine are simply stupid, but they’re also more than a little amusing.
Consider something like cocaine, which is derived from cocoa leaf that are grown and processed outside of the United States. Yet the fact that cocaine is produced and processed entirely outside of the United States hasn’t exactly lead to a dearth of cocaine.
Yet, apparently, something magical is going to happen with crystal meth such that the second you limit over-the-counter sales of pseudoephedrine, the supply of the drug is just going to dry right up. You know, because it would be impossible for people to smuggle pseudoephedrine into the United States, or simply switch to producing crystal meth in Canada or Mexico and smuggling the finished product in.
Nah, that would never happen.