February 10, 2006

• oh- please don't link to this without letting me know first? contact info is in my profile... my bandwidth is not infinite.... thanks.
• but... i <3 meth v_v
• I can't get video, just sound. Quick Time and Real Player both. Quick Time says it doesn't posess a compressor to play the video track, and that's with upgrading to the very latest Quick Time.
• works fine for me... in quick time
• QT 7.0.4 encoded with AAC, Stereo (L R), 8.000 kHz H.264, 320 x 240. apologies if it doesn't work Lara... and apologies for not mentioning it was QT to begin with... you know how we Mac folks get....
• Ah, found the answer. The H264 codec is only available with QT 7 or higher. I don't have the latest version after all, and can't get it because I don't want to upgrade to XP. My own damned fault. I know, I know. Get a mac...
• The story
• They may be the first to remove pseudoephedrine from all products but the big names have pseudoephedrine-free cold meds out as well. See Wikipedia.
• /off-topic Just an FYI, on PBS, at least here in Oregon, they are going to run a couple of programs on the meth problem, that is growing at a phenominal rate. Some of the people who are in it are from my county and have been giving many lectures of late, locally, on this problem that almost taken Oregon over, AFAIAC. For those who are unaware, this is a crisis that is going to heavily impact the welfare system in the very near future (more than it already is). It's already started here in my state and it's a frightening thing to watch. I am involved in CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) which is a volunteer program that allows eligible citizens to stand up and represent the children in cases where their parents are addicts or are nowhere to be found, versus the 'system' representing them. 80% of the cases are meth related........that number is growing. It is, easily, the most devastating drug I have ever seen. I would only ask that anyone who can pass a background check and is concerned about abused/neglected children please consider volunteering for organizations such as this. While state welfare programs suck in general, the biggest reason for this is that their extremely overburdened and the case workers desperately need all the help they can get.
• In Massachusetts, drugstores have moved over-the-counter drugs with pseudoephedrine from regular shelves; they're now behind-the-counter so you have to ask for them, which can't have helped sales. Some drugstores made the change before the law was enacted because of rampant shoplifting (people would run into a store, sweep a whole shelf into a garbage bag, then run out and into a waiting getaway car). The drug manufacturer can spin it any way they like but pseudoephedrine was dead or dying in the marketplace for them and they needed to come up with an alternative for purely business reasons. Meth in this country has a rural Southern and Midwest redneck trailer park connotation but apparently it's becoming big in Boston and in the gay community in particular. There was a high-profile discovery last fall of a lab in Fort Point, which is an area with a lot of artists' lofts right near downtown. Cooking meth requires some highly toxic and explosive ingredients and the idea of labs springing up in a heavily populated urban area has a lot of people here worried.
• it is a huge problem here in the bay area as well. tweakers are visible just about everywhere you look, in clubs, advertising, the gay community, on the street, and most recently, in the local high schools... I just found it astonishing that the manufacturers would take this direction and tone with their advertising. I hope others will have the same attitude. I have seen firsthand the damage meth does to a person, and I am all in favor of its eradication.
• .....in the gay community in particular. Wow, timefactor, I had completely forgotten that the first time I had heard of Meth was in the late '80's. An aquaintance of mine who was gay and only about 17 years old started doing meth with some friends in Seattle/Vancouver. His parents were bikers (thankfully, open minded/accepting of their son) and members of some biker gang, growing lot's of weed in their basement and they never questioned any of his drug use. We didn't see him for weeks at a time. I think he was running drugs quite a bit for his folks. Anyway, you could see the difference in him each time you saw him. He rapidly started losing his angelic, good looks and developed a skeletal, gaunt look. The majority of our circle of friends merely assumed it was some sort of speed and didn't think anything about it, he didn't make a big deal out of it, either. That is a very jarring memory for me as I lost touch with him and, given how long ago it was and how reckless he was, I imagine he is dead, now. Christ, I haven't thought about him in years.
• Anyone more connected to the 'scene' want to speculate on what drug will take the place of meth if lack of pseudoephedrine makes widespread manufacture impossible? I found it fascinating to learn that when Ecstacy spiked in popularity while the key ingredients became unavailable, the drug distributors just re-branded speed to fill the need, with most users never realizing.
• Yeah, they're cracking down on the meth in my neck of the woods too, now that the white suburban kids are doing it.
• They've moved all the pseudoephedrine-containing cold and sinus medicines behind the pharmacy counters recently in Nebraska (where meth is a big problem). That's gotta hurt sales. So companies will "reformulate" and remarket to recapture sales. This is just an attempt to spin such a reformulation as a crimefighting move on the company's part, rather than what it is: a response to recapture lost sales. Don't make me laugh.
• Living in the Pacific Northwest, Meth is a significant presence. Hicks love it. My father was giving me a ride into school one morning (15ish) and we passed a schoolmates' house. The hazmat suits abounded, and her father was being led away. Nice guy, too. Above all things, I advocate personal responsibility. If you can do your hard-core drugs responsibly (few can), I see nothing wrong with it. Meth, however, is Satan incarnate in drug form. Nothing positive comes out of it.
• There are a few community meetings here in the West End (Vancouver) focusing on meth use by street kids and gay club kids, and a few suburban initiatives as well. First time I heard of crystal was in 1987 when somebody tried to sell us some. I, astonished at his bold and impertinent approach, loudly upbraided him. Actually me and my friend just said no and then stared at stuff because we were already too baked on acid. I live about 5 or so blocks from Crystal Corner, and it's pretty much the Running of the Tweakers getting into or past the liquor store where they hang out selling dumpster- repurposed merchandise and being generally twitchy. Living around homelessness and drug culture, it's amazing how proficient one gets at knowing if someone's homeless and/or fucked-up, even when they're trying to hide it well; for example, wearing clean clothes, not loaded down with all their possessions, that kind of thing. It's mostly the scanning that gives them away; the constant attention to every inch of the sidewalk in front of them, looking for butts. But for the grace of God.
• Coralized link to save your bandwidth. This is just more war on drugs nonsense. You need MASS amounts of psuedoephedrine to make meth. Simply controlling who buys this stuff in large amounts (which actually has been working) was doing fine, until activist politicians began pressuring drug companies to switch to a much less potent chemical which does not work at all as far as I can tell. Also, I think the fear of potential lawsuits from previous meth abusers, their families, and even the government has scared a lot of these companies "straight." Vicks has also stopped using psuedoephedrine. The aggressive advertising probably has a lot to do with people complaining about ths superior old formula. Nasal passages are not emptying out like they used to, so these companies probably feel playing up the war on drugs morality card will stop complaints. Might work. I doubt theyre going to go back to psuedoephedrine now anyway. This will hurt the small labs but will have little to no effect on the larger labs which produce meth in mass quantities. Enjoy your war on drugs over-the-top ads/hysteria and less potent medications. Im getting a little concerned over the FDA and the government pushing more and more mostly safe OTC medicines into the verboted category. There's really nothing wrong with ephedra, but some junkie baseball players takes more than the sane limit and its an excuse to pull the stuff. I wonder what drug is next. This all stinks of some serious nanny state stuff that I'm not comfortable with. Proper labeling of the products and quality control should be more than enough. Id love to see some proof in a year that these measures will effect meth prodution, but I have a feeling it wont. This is like outlawing small indoor plant lights and expecting pot to cease to exist.
• Meth is a childrens medicine.
• An old, but related story.
• Meth in this country has a rural Southern and Midwest redneck trailer park connotation but apparently it's becoming big in Boston and in the gay community in particular. That's mostly because a huge chunk -- most, I believe -- of the US's meth production is in and around the Ozarks area. It's practically a cash crop in Missouri, particularly down in the hills. God awful stuff.
• I am bemused when the pharmacist greets me by name, then pulls out the big ledger to take down all of my info from my driver's licence, then lets me pay with a credit card - no signature required. This to buy pills for my sniffles. She also agrees that the hassle is silly. If this keeps just one person from rotting away from meth, then I am happy to cooperate.
• Someone I know spent the greater part of the 90s in jail from meth related activities. I thought that would have scared this person away from the drug, but at Christmas he showed all the signs of addiction. It's scary to have a tweaker at Christmas dinner. Which is to say, meth is a big problem in TX, too.
• These drugs are behind the pharmacy counter in NY too. At least in my town. I haven't tried any of the products that have replaced pseudoephedrine yet, but if they don't help my colds as well, I'm gonna be pissed.
• I miss phenylpropanolamine (PPA), pseudoephedrine makes my heart race.
• Good on you Darshon. Meth is truly horrible stuff. So sad what any parent using an addictive drug can do to kids.
• Why is meth so addicting? I can understand stuff like heroin being addictive because of the zenlike properties... and alcohol because of habit and state of mind... but why meth? I know coffee's not in the same league, but I assume it's also a stimulant, and I don't ever seem to feel kookoo for coffee.
• I don't know why, rolypolyman. From what I've been told (and this could be mere propaganda) it doesn't even have a fun high. It just makes you feel fast and shitty instead of regular shitty.
• Oh, Meredithea, WHY did you make me do this?? MonkeyFilter: It just makes you feel fast and shitty instead of regular shitty.
• skallas - what mord said. I don't think we should exactly bemoan the loss of pseudoephedrine. It's always made me anxious and trembly. The fact that some companies are taking it out of medications - whether it's because of a questionable scare or not - makes those medications more viable for me, because I try not to take pseudoephedrine at all. I can say for real that the Quil family is a lot easier for me to take since they changed the formula.
• also - rolypolyman - take away an office's coffee machine, or seekritly switch the entire office to decaf, and see how many people are irritable and headachy for a few days. There are indeed people who are kookoo for coffee, though I think the dependence is probably largely psychological. Why meth is so particularly nasty? No idea. But I've seen previously nice guys go deeply sketchy on it.
• Missouri is filthy with Meth, they bust 2-3 labs (if you want to call them that) a week. Never tasted the stuff myself (I, like Moneyjane, remember when it was "crystal" or "ice" and primarily a biker's drug [my brother was a biker]) but my understanding is that it is, fast acting, creepily addictive, and has that particular soul-deadening aspect that seems to accompany strong, cheap drugs, coupled with the febrile "chrome bones" typical to powerful amphetamines. AND, apparently, it will turn you into a grim, chilly, sociopathically narcissistic skeleton reasonably quickly.