i saw a powerful frontline the other day on the war against methamphetamines. it isn’t every day i am riveted to a show about drugs, but this was amazing… and meth is no ordinary drug. according to researchers, using meth actually changes the structure of the brain, rendering users unable to feel pleasure anymore without the drug. this sort of thing makes it incredibly difficult to rehab abusers.

also according to the show, the drug czar guy who managed to shut down quaaludes (people from the ’70s will remember that disco gem) by going after the factories that produced the necessary chemical was thwarted from doing the same thing for years. thus, the nine factories that produce ephedrine or pseudoephedrine (the ingredients necessary to make meth) had free reign to sell to all sorts of cartels and bad guys, thanks to our friends in the pharmaceutical industry. (you should have heard the lame-ass legislative guy from pfizer talking about that one.) to think that the pharmaceutical companies were more concerned about their bottom line over public health — for shame. though, of course, i am not surprised at all.

so sudafeds and the like must be gotten from behind the drugstore counter in most places, something i support. otherwise, you get these people who buy zillions of packages and then use them to make meth. it probably didn’t bother the folks at the pharmaceutical companies, of course — hell, they probably sold more product that way. but now, people have to sign in with their pharmacist, a move that certainly can’t be harmful to anyone.

i’m ranting all about this because i have been suffering from an upper respiratory snot-fest that has lasted for over two weeks now. today, i went to purchase some robitussin CF, to find that pseudephrine has been replaced with a new decongestant. i am hoping this decongestant doesn’t make my heart race the way pseudephrine does. (some of us don’t go for that sort of thing, you know.) cross your fingers.