The Democratic Party has not been responsive enough to the needs of rural voters--of course, the Republicans aren't responsive to rural people's needs (unless their income is more than $80,000 a year). Now, there is one blight on rural America where the Republicans at the Federal level will never deliver: cutting off meth labs before they can get the ingredients! Any laws restricting pseudoephedrine would cut into
Pfizer's profits and that can't happen, no matter how many meth labs pollute the rural environment. (Pfizer gave over $1.4 million to politicians and 67% went to the GOP.)
Now the New York Times is noticing that meth is moving into suburbs.
... more below the fold...
Last year, for example, Iowa, one of the states hardest hit by methamphetamine, was unable to pass a bill that would have made pseudoephedrine a controlled substance, or Schedule 5 drug, like cough syrup with codeine, that could be sold only in pharmacies from behind the counter.
"All the lobbying by the Consumer Healthcare Products Association and by Pfizer gave us a really watered-down bill," said Marvin Van Haaften, the director of the Iowa governor's Office of Drug Control Policy. Pfizer is the manufacturer of Sudafed.
So how about it, Dems? I'm sure Harry Reid, from a state with many rural voters, would understand the importance of just putting pseudoephedrine behind the counter. A small inconvenience for people with colds, but it will save taxpayer dollars on environmental cleanup, and lives among rural law enforcement. This can help stem the tide before it inundates our ex-urbs and suburbs.