Lawmaker wants baking soda to be sold behind counter | St. Louis Area News | KMOV.com | St. Louis, M

[groovychk]

Originally published at Twixel.net. You can comment here or there.

Lawmaker wants baking soda to be sold behind counter | St. Louis Area News |
KMOV.com | St. Louis, MO

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis legislator wants to require that baking soda be sold behind the pharmacy counter, as part of an effort aimed at a base ingredient in crack cocaine.   The proposal by Democratic Representative Talibdin El-Amin is modeled after a state law that requires some cold medicines to be placed behind the pharmacy counter because they contain ingredients used to make meth.   The anti-meth law requires customers to show a photo I-D and sign a book specifying their name, address and how much they purchased.
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Absolutely ridiculous.
I’m sick and tired of punishing the many for the disruption of the few.
The powers that be are already forcing me to stand in prescription drug lines and get even MORE scrutiny to buy “over the counter” anti-allergy medicine (showing my ID and signing a log book) than I do to get prescription drugs.
Nanny State combined with the power grabbing “War on Drugs”. Neither are good and neither work.

Comments

[deviantgm.livejournal.com]

That's an unfair attack on Capitalism. The problem is not that a capitalist system is being used for abuse... the problem is that government has subverted the process with regulations that prohibit competition and accountability.

If the FDA makes a mistake or is subject to special interests, we have no choice but to listen to them anyway. They make the rules. Were drugs overseen by an independent, private body, we'd not have this problem. Put your label on too many crap drugs? Your approval becomes a joke, and people go to a more reputable body. It works for other industries... so why not the drug industry?

Of course, that would require a good dose of personal responsibility. If I eat a dead cow laying on the side of the road, I'm agreeing to take upon myself the risk of infection and disease. Similarly, people would have to be willing to take upon themselves the risk of using drugs that have not been screened by a reputable body, should they choose to do so.

[groovychk.livejournal.com]

I'm not anti-capitalism at all. I've stated before that I just don't think laissez faire capitalism will work. I'm just pointing out one of the potential negatives (which is why I think as I do about LFC)and how I think it is coming into play here.
I think the FDA needs a major overhaul. What I was really saying there is that I think our entire government needs an overhaul.
A private body for overseeing? Who watches the watchers then? At least the FDA is ostensibly accountable via our representative government.

[deviantgm.livejournal.com]

Private bodies would be a better idea. I just posted on the idea in general as it relates to regulatory bodies, and contrasted a couple of private vs. public bodies. Basically, it is the public that watches the watchers. It is still illegal to poison someone through negligence, so privatizing FDAish entities would only remove the protective blanket of government from its shoulders.

[deviantgm.livejournal.com]

Sorry to post so much... multitasking splits up thoughts.

I agree... we need a major overhaul of government. I'd say that a great start would be to restore the power of the states. One of the major underlying issues between PEOPLE in the U.S. is that we're trying to mesh countless political philosophies into one big, nasty stew. If we were willing to allow the states to set their own internal political philosophies (while ensuring that no violations of Constitutionally protected rights occured), we'd have 50 positions from which we could all amiably disagree.

[kyrie1618.livejournal.com]

I have problems with laissez faire capitalism as well, but they mostly stem from the fact that the free market seems to concentrate power into fewer and fewer hands. If people are to behave we need seperation of powers, we need transparency, and we need free exchange of information.

Between vertical integration, intellectual property, and NDAs, I don't see any way the libertarian ideal can ever work -- it's unstable and decays into monopoly/feudalism, IMHO.

[deviantgm.livejournal.com]

Its hard to say, because no one has actually tried it.