This issue really steams me every time I think about it.
I have a larger-than-average family (five kids). Most of the kids, like me, have chronic allergies. And like kids everywhere, they trade colds with their friends all winter long. We live quite a ways out of town. My husband works nights and is usually the one who picks up groceries simply because it saves gas money.
The upshot is that it is illegal for my family to purchase or even to possess enough Sudafed to last us for a single week when everyone is sick. My husband cannot usually purchase the cold medicine for us at the 24-hour WalMart, because the pharmacy window closes when the sun goes down. So ever since that stupid law went into effect, I end up having to make a special, separate trip to town just to pick up snotty nose medicine.
These stupid laws don't make any difference at all to my neighbor's recreational habits. But they sure as @$%^ affect my life, my family, and my finances.
And don't even get me started about unintended consequences. Someone here -- I'm not going to scroll up and get the name because frankly I despise the opinion so much that I'd prefer not to remember who said it! -- suggested that pseudoephedrine should just go back to being a prescription drug. Great. So instead of buying a $5 box of pills, I'd have to buy five trips to the doctor (do the math: that's a $20 co-pay for each kid if you've got insurance; or $100 or so per kid if you don't), plus that same $5 for the actual medicine. Not to mention the time off work and, oh yeah, that trip down into town to the pharmacy because you simply cannot buy a prescription med from the corner market. Think how many kids in poor families will end up with ruptured ear drums from non-bacterial snotty noses, if using simple snot-nose medicine gets to be that expensive.
pax
I have a larger-than-average family (five kids). Most of the kids, like me, have chronic allergies. And like kids everywhere, they trade colds with their friends all winter long. We live quite a ways out of town. My husband works nights and is usually the one who picks up groceries simply because it saves gas money.
The upshot is that it is illegal for my family to purchase or even to possess enough Sudafed to last us for a single week when everyone is sick. My husband cannot usually purchase the cold medicine for us at the 24-hour WalMart, because the pharmacy window closes when the sun goes down. So ever since that stupid law went into effect, I end up having to make a special, separate trip to town just to pick up snotty nose medicine.
These stupid laws don't make any difference at all to my neighbor's recreational habits. But they sure as @$%^ affect my life, my family, and my finances.
And don't even get me started about unintended consequences. Someone here -- I'm not going to scroll up and get the name because frankly I despise the opinion so much that I'd prefer not to remember who said it! -- suggested that pseudoephedrine should just go back to being a prescription drug. Great. So instead of buying a $5 box of pills, I'd have to buy five trips to the doctor (do the math: that's a $20 co-pay for each kid if you've got insurance; or $100 or so per kid if you don't), plus that same $5 for the actual medicine. Not to mention the time off work and, oh yeah, that trip down into town to the pharmacy because you simply cannot buy a prescription med from the corner market. Think how many kids in poor families will end up with ruptured ear drums from non-bacterial snotty noses, if using simple snot-nose medicine gets to be that expensive.
pax