yet another reason to throw the bums out!

sunday nite i started feeling the warning signs of a summer cold.

couldn't find my zinc lozenges in time to stave it off, so the last few days have been spent in utter misery.

after finding out i had four tabs of drixoral left, i kept the massively rebelling sinuses at bay until this afternoon when the deluge started.

so, off i went at 7:30 pm to find more drixoral.

simple, right?  and what has this to do with politics?  well, join me after the fold and i'll explain (between bouts of rage and fury!)

first, i went to the festering source of the virus: walmart (yes, i sometimes have to pass those dreaded walls of inequity to buy objects no longer found in the real world...) and each time, i run into the small harbingers of deadly virus running through the aisles.  this last cold was a direct result of a mother cheerily proclaiming that someone in her near family had yet "another cold" (and tonite, the preteen who sneeZed mightily directly in front of me failed to even TRY to cover his mouth... sigh...)

but...

back to the tale of woe...

so... i check for drixoral.  nada.  left after returning the defective marine battery i bought there (which is why i had to return) and headed over to kmart.

nada.

next, to longs - none there either (except they had these nifty little cards with PICTURES of drixoral on them telling me to take them to the pharmacy - which, of course, by now was closed.)

walgreens - another nada.

safeway - more cute cards of pictures of the over the counter medicine i need to stop the massive attack of snot. (sounds yucky?  try FEELING it attacking!)

finally, i was told that in california, it is "law" that these "drugs" (over the counter, non-prescription, of course) are held behind the counter because...

are you ready for this?

really?

DRUGGIES use pseudophedrene to make METH!

uh - i just want to stop the massive amounts of mucous in my sinuses - i do NOT want to get high - i want to LIVE through the night without choking to death on gobs of goo!

sigh.  

off to drive to yet another town to the only all night pharmacy to buy a stupid sinus medication for colds.

20 more miles (so far, now, 30+ at $3.19/gal for gas?) and i'm not even half way there yet.  i get to the walgreens and YAY! they have a drive through so i don't have to get out and contaminate half the population up and about this hour (now ten pm).  i pull up, wait for the attendent who asks for my driver's license.

huh?  i'm not picking up a prescription, i'm asking for medication to stop a runny nose, for cripes sake!

then - oh, oops, they cannot FILL this at the WINDOW - i must come INTO the store because they have to... [wait for it...] ... enter my information into the computer for the federally required tracking of everyone who buys pseudophedrene.

WHAT THE F*CK???

i am NOW on a damned TRACKING list because my sinuses have decided to drown me in virus (thank you, walmart! THANK you, uninsured poor people who don't go to doctors, thank you government *sswipes who think that this will stop "drug abuse"!)

GAAAACCCCKKKK!

guess what!  THIS is a FEDERAL law! and it gets just crazier!

the reason i am now tracked for TWO YEARS is that this law was included in the reauthorization of the patriot act!

TITLE VII--COMBAT METHAMPHETAMINE EPIDEMIC ACT OF 2005

Section 701. Short title

The short title is the `Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005.' Section 701 of the conference report is a new section.

SUBTITLE A--DOMESTIC REGULATION OF PRECURSOR CHEMICALS

Section 711. Scheduled listed chemical products; restrictions on sale quantity, behind-the counter access, and other safeguards

This section of the conference report is new. Section 711 reclassifies pseudoephedrine, phenylpropanolamine, and ephedrine as Schedule Listed Chemicals; reduces the Federal pertransaction sales limit for SLCs from 9 grams to 3.6 grams (the amount recently proposed by the Administration); requires behind-the-counter storage or locked cabinet storage of SLCs; requires that regulated sellers (retail distributors and pharmacies) maintain a written log of purchases; restricts monthly sales to no more than 9.0 grams per purchaser; imposes similar requirements on Internet sellers and mobile retail vendors; and requires each regulated seller to submit a certification that it is in compliance with these requirements, that its employees have been trained as to these requirements, and that records relating to such training are maintained at the retailers location. Such certifications are to be made available by the Attorney General to State and local law enforcement.

Section 712. Regulated transactions

This section of the conference report is new and repeals the Federal `blister pack' exemption, and clarifies the law to include derivatives of each of these chemicals. It makes conforming amendments to the current law, to accommodate the new sales restrictions, and makes another technical correction to make it clear that these sales limitations apply to drug combinations containing derivatives of pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, or phenylpropanolamine.

[just a friendly little snippet of the law]

yep.

to protect us from terror - (of a runny nose) - i now have to present photo id, am limited to how many times my sinuses can flair in three months and my personal allotment of snot must be recorded and kept on file for two years for purchasing drixoral.

uh, isn't this a bit of overkill?

yep.  right up there with regulating data-mining, national security letters, hijacking airplanes, good ol' abu g. has to make sure i don't have easy access to an over the counter cold medicine that would regulate the flow of slime from my nostrils!

to prevent the spread of methamphetamine, i must go through massive screening lest my nose be deemed a threat to the security of this nation?

as i said in the title, yet another reason to throw the bastards out of washington.

we don't NEED another friggin' nanny-state!

so, for the first time in years, i end up with a summer cold - and a new political cause!  develop a NEW drug to keep government snots out of my nose!

hmmmm - maybe i'll just sneeze alot and go to each sponsor of the bill and shake their hands.

let's see how THEY do in the middle of the night trying to quell the virus from hell (walmart).