As the GOP alliance between the White House and Congress continues to break down, Republican Senators are increasingly willing to criticize the president. Today Bush rolled out his anti-methamphetamine plan, which would limit the amount of pseudo-ephedrine able to be sold at a time to 3.6 grams...about 110 pills of Sudafed. Not a 110 pills a month, just 110 pills at a time.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) attacked the White House as "listening more to Wal-Mart than to the economic and social problems" caused by meth. Iowa in particular has a very high rate of methamphetamine abuse. Wal-Mart bashing: not just for Democrats anymore.
Pseudoephedrine is a common chemical used in allergy and cold medicine such as Sudafed, which can be converted to an ingredient for meth. Mind you, we're not talking just one pack of pills, you would need a very large amount of pseudoephedrine to make any meth. Still, the limit proposed by Bush fell far short of what Congress wanted.
"If this is a cohesive national policy, it's embarassing," said Rep. Mark Souder (R-Indiana), chairman of the subcommittee that handles drug policy.
In the Senate, Jim Talent (R-Missouri) and Diane Feinstein (D-California) have co-sponsored legislation that would limit purchases to 250 pills a month. Obviously, this would require stores to keep track of all customers who purchase Sudafed, which brings up all sorts of privacy-related questions. Would you have to show ID? The Talent-Feinstein bill would also mandate that pseudoephedrine-containing products be kept behind the counter, similar to cigarettes (but not alcohol, inexplicably).
A month ago I diaried on Alberto Gonzales' declaration that meth has surpassed marijuana as the most dangerous drug to society. It seems like they want to get things done, but are finding once again that you can't always placate the social conservatives AND Big Business.
And of course, any drug-related legislation in this day and age usually involves more jail time for addicts.
And a poll...I'm curious about the extent of meth use in America.