Let me breathe!

I've been fighting off a head cold for the past three days. It sucks. But you know would make it a lot better?

A raging crystal meth epidemic.

You may have noticed that in the past couple of years cold medicine has either A) gone behind the counter or B) become completely worthless. Thanks to lawmakers like mine, pseudoephedrine has largely disappeared from the shelves of drugstores across America. In some places, like Washington State, you have to go to a pharmacist to get the good stuff. In others, like South Carolina, you just have to sign some forms and show a drivers license.

Well, here's why I'd rather deal with meth heads running around my neighborhood*: phenylephrine, the most popular replacement in NyQuil, Sudafed, etc, must be a fancy chemical word for "sugar pill." Seriously. It does absolutely nothing. I rummaged around my stash of old drugs and found some Advil Cold & Sinus from 2005. It had well since expired. But you know what? It had psedoephedrine. Guess who was able to breath for 4-5 hours?

This guy.

* Given recent happenings in my current neighborhood and former neighborhood, I'm not sure the addition of a healthy meth scene could do a lot of harm.