Snooping on Hay Fever Patients

Posted by John LaPlante in Health Care, Iowa on Mar 17th, 2009 | no responses

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If you suffer from seasonal hay fever, as do I, you've probably seen your favorite medications disappear, and others made more inconvenient to purchase. It's all part of the "war on drugs," specifically, meth.

Iowa has already required residents to jump through hoops to get those little pills of antihistamine. Now Iowans who want some pharmacological help with itchy eyes will have to submit to the watching eyes of state government.

Under legislation expected to be signed into law, customers who purchase medications with pseudoephedrine, a common ingredient in allergy medication, will be entered into an electronic database for appropriate snoopervision.

"Rep. Lisa Heddens, D-Ames, said what they’re seeing now is a close to 20 percent increase in clandestine meth labs because people are going from pharmacy to pharmacy to buy pseudoephedrine."

I suppose that's supposed to mean "We tightened the screws once and it didn't work; let's try again."

I've heard that bathtubs are useful in making meth. I wonder if next year we'll have ten-day waiting period to buy a bathtub.

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