He Should Have Known He Needed a Prescription for an OTC Drug
Jacob Sullum | October 3, 2008, 3:06pm
When Gary Schinagel's niece told him she had seen his name in a local newspaper story about a drug investigation, he decided to go down to the sheriff's office and straighten out what was obviously a misunderstanding. Instead Schinagel, a 47-year-old senior investment associate at Principal Financial Group in Mason City, Iowa, was arrested for violating a 2005 state law that aims to curtail methamphetamine production by limiting the amount of pseudoephedrine, a meth precursor, an individual may purchase. Buyers of cold and allergy remedies containing the chemical have to present ID and sign a log (a requirement that has since been imposed throughout the country by federal law), which allows police to track who is buying how much. Schinagel, who has suffered from chronic nasal congestion since childhood, was not using the pseudoephedrine to cook meth, and he says he's not even sure which rule he broke: the one against buying more than 3.6 grams (120 Sudafed tablets) in a 24-hour period or the one against buying more than 7.5 grams of pseudoephedrine (250 tablets) in a month. The latter offense is a "serious misdemeanor" that can get you up to a year in jail and a $1,500 fine.
The law does allow someone in Schinagel's medical situation to exceed the pseudoephedrine limits, but only with a prescription. "It is a sinking feeling to be placed under arrest," Schinagel, who is free on bail, told the Mason City Globe Gazette. "I've tried all my life to avoid situations like I find myself in now. And I still don't know which line I crossed."
I bemoaned the Sudafed crackdown in a 2005 column.
[via The Drug War Chronicle]
stubby | October 3, 2008, 8:59pm | #
I have a mild chronic pain problem that can't be diagnosed cause it's just, you know, pain - in my neck and shoulders. Fibromyalgia, whatever - it hurts, sometimes badly, sometimes not so much.
My regular doctor - who became my doctor when he quite literally saved my life on the operating table (i was on it, not him) is a real anti-pain pill nut. I still love him, but it bugs me. So I go to my old family doctor who is near retirement, and he continues to prescribe one of the milder pain meds for me. Never makes me come in to see him, knows I'm not an addict, yada yada.
I mentioned the pain problem to my OB/GYN one time, and when I told her how often I sometimes take the pain meds, she was concerned. Asked me who was prescribing them. I told her "my old family doctor" - no name.
But once i left her office, I got worried. Called her nurse, told her that I expected her to respect patient confidentiality, did not want her trying to figure out who my old family doctor was, or...you know. The nurse called me back to tell me that the OB/GYN understood my concern, knew what i was talking about, and did not intend to do anything with the information.
It's fucking pathetic that I had to worry about that. My 73 year old mother, who has a rather open-ended prescription to some scheduled drugs herself, still thinks it's okay to criminalize this stuff because some people need to be protected from themselves. And of course it's okay for the government to decide how much is too much. It could never happen to her, of course. She's a sweet little old lady and no one would ever bring her up on charges...
SB | October 5, 2008, 2:54pm | #
National bank
Political cronyism
Income Tax (the first one)
Sherman Anti-trust Act
Child labor laws
Federal Resrve Act
New Deal
NLRA & B
Taft-Hartley
Tariffs, protectionism, anti-immigration
Social Security Act
Worker's Comp act
Square Deal
Fair Deal
The ah shit, just give 'em the money deal (while taking away their freedom)
Steel, oil and other industry price ceilings--and floors
State broadcasting dept.
Medicare--Medicaid
Government insurance
Explicit & narrower wage & price restrictions
Campaign finance reform
OTC drug sales restrictions
CRA & Freddie
$840 billion nationalization of Wall St.
Much left out; much more to come. Snowball & momentum of falling objects effect. Or, if you like, the effect of the law of critical mass.
Over the next 1-4 years, you won't believe what's going to happen--even as you see it happening.
What's more, most Americans--including those who advocate capitalism but, hey, we can't have it *completely* unregulated *AND* those who think they can build a polito-economic sys on an amoral foundation (i.e., sans an objective ethics, e.g., Libertarians)--will deserve it. Political freedom is impossible w/o economic freedom; and both are impossible without an ethical base.
Enjoy.
As for me, I'm going to Monaco. See ya, wouldn't wanna, etc.
