War On Drugs Thoughts For The Weekend

Jacob Sullum posts on Hit and Run about Gary Schinagel, a 47 year-old investment associate in Iowa who was arrested for buying too much over the counter cold medicine. Not at one time mind you, but either for buying 120 tablets in a 24-hour period or 250 tablets over the period of a month. How would someone be arrested for such a thing? Well, because of the supposed meth epidemic, pharmacies are required by federal law to keep logs of all purchases of pseudoephedrine, the wonder drug which can blunt the effects of sever colds and is apparently very useful in home made drug labs.

I've blogged on this before, when I was understandably frustrated when local pharmacies here in Connecticut would not allow me to purchase several packages of cold medicine at one time. It's just another, in-your-face, painfully obvious example of the war on drugs taken too far. I don't see how under any circumstances, a law that puts a guy in jail for trying to treat his nasal congestion with legal products is an appropriate sort of law for a free country. It would have been nice to hear one of our candidates actually criticize the war on drugs, but maybe that's just asking for too much.