January 15, 2007
Sniffles
What possible use could respiratory allergies have? I suppose they're part of an overly active immune system, fighting off pollen and other invaders that are entering the body. Today I've been afflicted with a runny nose for most of the day and like any hypochondriac I am always racked with worry. Is this the beginning of an illness? Will I die from this one? So I take antihistamines that make me sleepy or decongestants that rev me up and hope the symptoms abate. Soon.
Speaking of decongestants, did you know that Sudafed PE is not really Sudafed (pseudoephidrene) but instead is another chemical that doesn't work nearly as well? You can go to the pharmacist counter and buy the real stuff, but you have to sign for it. Like that's going to stop anyone who wants to make meth -- or like they buy psuedoephidrene at the corner drugstore to cook up into crystal methamphetamines. What a joke.
The Government finds it easier to legislate this annoying law than deal with the Mexican mafia importers and the gangs who distribute meth. It's not us local yokels who are trying to buy decongestant to fight off allergies that are causing a meth epidemic, in the biggest sense it's the consolidation of petroleum-dependent industrial agriculture. That means that one person, multiple chemicals and many machines do the joyless work of producing food with many calories but little nutritional content. Ideally farmers care for animals in a balance between production of crops, application of animal manure to the fields as fertilizer, with a net energy gain from sunlight making the whole farm productive. An effective farmer grows a surplus of good food in a balanced, loving environment for animals. Unfortunately modern farming's industrial scale is so counter to that it uses more calories from petroleum than it generates from the sun. That imbalance permeates modern rural life masking it so unappealing that young people turn to meth. It's very sad.