There’s a story in today’s Register-Guard about the Oregon government’s attempts to cut down on rampant methamphetamine use throughout the state. Governor Teddy Kulongoski has called for all medicines containing pseudoephedrine to be put behind pharmacy counters. Fantastic. This will only increase the cost of meth and, consequently, the amount that addicts have to steal in order to get their next fix. Even better, now when I’m having a cold I’ll have to wait behind all the aching and impotent old people just to stop my nose from running like a faucet. A few of the other proposals cited by Guard reporter David Steves are a bit more sensible, however:

Set tougher criminal penalties for people who allow children, elderly or disabled people into a home used as a meth lab.
Make laws establishing new crimes aimed at the meth trade, including the crimes of dumping meth waste, operating a meth lab, and distributing meth equipment and chemicals.
Crack down on owners of contaminated meth labs by setting a 180-day time limit for owners to decontaminate homes that have been declared unfit for use because they had been the site of a methamphetamine lab.
Create immunity for people who report what they believe to be activities involving meth or meth-making precursors.
Authorize the state welfare agency to suspend an individual’s food stamp benefits when there is evidence that the person traded those benefits for drugs, and has a prior drug conviction.

Here’s an even better idea: how about some more jobs?

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 9th, 2005 at 16:06 by Ian and is filed under Oregon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.