Pubdate: Thu, 06 Feb 2014
Source: Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN)
Copyright: 2014 Chattanooga Publishing Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.timesfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/992
Author: G. Lamar Wilkie

DON'T PUNISH THE INNOCENT

The governor's anti-meth bill will force many law-abiding citizens to
see their doctors and get prescriptions before they can purchase safe,
effective cold medicine.

If Gov. Bill Haslam's bill passes and you need more than 10 days of
medicine that contains pseudoephedrine (the active ingredient in
Sudafed and many other cold medicines), you'll have to take off work
or hire a sitter; get a prescription; go to the pharmacy, get your
medicine and go home ... all while miserable with a cold or flu.

Repeat this for every family member who gets the sniffles. It is not
the way to fight meth. It is wrong to treat decent, struggling
families like criminals.

Besides, it is yet another intrusion of government into our lives, and
it will not solve the problem. This law doesn't change the fact that
80 percent of this country's meth is supplied by Mexican drug cartels
- -- not the local store; a monthly pseudoephedrine limit does nothing
to stop them.

Why should we, law-abiding citizens, have to pay for the crime, when
all we want to do is to treat a cold? Isn't punishing everyone for the
actions of a few absurd?

G. LAMAR WILKIE, Manchester, Tenn.
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MAP posted-by: Matt