PSEUDOEPHEDRINE BOYCOTT

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Dr. Noel Gibeson Corbell

On September 30, 2006 new bureaucratic regulations went into effect that now require every American who purchases decongestants containing pseudoephedrine to show a photographic identification card and provide other personal data. In what used to be a simple over-the-counter transaction, consumers must now fill out a form containing their name, address, telephone number, date, the name of the drug purchased, and the quantity purchased. Pseudoephedrine-containing drugs are now stored behind the counter instead of in front of it and consumers must now ask a clerk to purchase these products. Child decongestants are included as well.

While illicit drug producers probably account for a miniscule amount of all pseudoephedrine purchases, perhaps less than 1%; now all legitimate users of these products must suffer the wrath of the petty bureaucrats and pay the price of yet another loss of freedom and privacy. Now legitimate users - the other 99%, must provide their personal information to the DEA and the store of purchase if they want to purchase these medicines.

How did we lose yet another freedom to government bureaucrats? Ostensibly, these new regulations were instituted to restrict the supply of material used by methamphetamine producers to produce crystal meth. In the recent past, illegal drug producers would buy large quantities of pseudoephedrine products over-the-counter and convert them into crystal meth selling them for high profits. While crystal meth continues to be a major problem in this country; it is mainly a problem because current laws make it an illegal drug product and thus these laws help to produce criminals that fill our prisons. Drug users are victimless crimes and they are a major contributor to our prison population and taxpayers, as always, pay for all this.

Is all this necessary; of course not? There are already laws on the books that prohibit the production, sale, and distribution of illicit drugs. These laws need to be enforced and, in fact, they are aggressively enforced. So why must the 99% of legitimate users suffer loss of freedom under these regulations for the actions of but a few? What can the average American do to stop this?

Well, they can stop buying any product containing pseudoephedrine. Boycotting these products will send a clear message to our elected officials, via the powerful drug industry, that these regulations need to be reversed. Anything that interferes with the free trade of goods and services needs to be abolished and these regulations are one of these.

So are laws that make criminals out of drug users; these laws created the illicit drug industry in the first place and the violence that goes along with it. People should have the choice on whether they want to become drug addicts or to live drug-free. The government should have nothing to do with any of this because they are restricting free-trade and over-burdening the prison population.

And perhaps it is even time to focus on important things like, oh, let’s say; stopping imperialistic wars, balancing the budget, eliminating the national debt, and installing public servants who actually follow the Constitution and work for their constituents instead of special interests. I don’t think that is asking too much, do you?

 

Dr. Noel Gibeson Corbell. As president of the Mount Vernon Institute, Dr. Corbell provides research and consulting services into contemporary issues involving the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence, international affairs, human rights, the economy, terrorism, intelligence, homeland security, including counter-terrorism, and government responsibility and accountability. At Georgetown University, he taught courses as they relate to technology, intelligence, counter-intelligence, counter-terrorism and space issues. One course called Intelligence and American Foreign Policy, examined unclassified, open-source documents and the steps in the intelligence cycle up to and including preparation of the National Intelligence Estimate. As an organizational management consultant and a radio broadcaster with WALE Radio 990, he produced and hosted a live, radio talk show broadcast over New England and New York called Tomorrow, Today. Earlier, Noel Gibeson Corbell was a career U.S. Marine Corps force recon and infantry officer. In that regard he served in operational positions worldwide in jungles, deserts, mountains and oceans. Later, he was a strategic planner at Headquarters Marine Corps and for the Secretary of the Navy. His commentaries have appeared in newspapers like the Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, the Army Times, the Air Force Times, and on the Free Market News Network, as well as in The National Interest.