… will be my working title for this rant.
Good morning from my office nestled between two stadiums in Seattle. It is a Thanksgiving morning, and I am getting ready for the events of today. It’s going to be a bit busy around this joint today, what with the Seahawks and the Forty-Niners game this afternoon. It’s going to be another $100k night around here.
That isn’t what I am going to be ranting about. I don’t care to argue about Thanksgiving — you either celebrate the festivity or not. Don’t care one way or the other. Let someone else waste their brain cells on that noise. No, I have something to bitch about that I think most people could get behind — if they knew about it. And it is 100 percent non-political.
What’s my bitch? Cold medicines.
That’s right, I’m talking about all of those over-the-counter cold medicines that every one of us run out to buy every time we get a cold.
Up until about a year ago, most OTC cold remedies contained the active ingredient, Pseudoephedrine. It’s a natural product from plants of the Ephedra genus, especially E. sinica, where it occurs along with ephedrine and other alkaloids. I could give you an entire chemistry lesson on Pseudoephedrine but I will spare you most of it and just hit the highlights.
In 2005 Congress passed the Combat Methamphetamine Act of 2005 because criminals were buying up cases of OTC cold medicines that contained Pseudoephedrine because it could easily be made into methamphetamine through a fairly simple chemical reaction. Kids as young as 13-years-old were learning how to be meth ‘cooks’. The new law took the OTC medicines off the shelves and put them behind the pharmacy counter or locked cabinet. Restrictions were place on how many packages you could buy and your ID was checked and name recorded.
But it did absolutely nothing to slow down the manufacture of crank. All it did was inconvenience customers, and affected the bottom line of the manufacturers because they weren’t selling as much.
So last year, the manufacturers quietly removed Pseudoephedrine from the formulation of most of its OTC cold remedies so that it could go back on the regular shelves with the rest of the medicines. They chose to substitute Pseudoephedrine with Phenylephrine, a chemical that had been found to be ineffective as long as SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. In fact, Phenylephrine was replaced by Pseudoephedrine exactly because Phenylephrine was ineffective. Now they are back to selling a product they KNOW doesn’t work.
FDA Advisory Panel Rules that Oral Phenylephrine Is Ineffective
A recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel has concluded that over-the-counter (OTC) oral phenylephrine is ineffective as a nasal decongestant. This finding is not especially surprising, as oral phenylephrine’s effectiveness has been questioned for decades.
Great! The Food and Drug Administration is all over this! They will tell those evil companies they cannot sell bullshit and call it ‘effective’.
Yeah… NO. A couple of weeks after their panel came out with the determination that phenylephrine is no different than a placebo, the FDA had to come out with a ‘clarification’. Turns out that that as long as a drug — effective or not — is “safe”, then it is alright to continue its use.
HUH? So it’s alright to go back to selling snake oil remedies just as long as it isn’t harming the person?
I had COVID last week. Over that period of time I spent almost $100 on cold medicine to help keep my sinus clear. I’ve had a post nasal drip that causes me to cough uncontrollably unless I can dry up my sinuses. NONE of the bullshit worked, and as late as yesterday afternoon I was still dealing with the post nasal drip and barking cough.
Then I found out the fact that EVERY ONE OF THESE DRUG STORES STILL SELL THE EFFECTIVE OTC REMEDIES BEHIND THE FUCKING COUNTER!
There is nothing on the shelves telling you that the shit they sell on the shelves is pure bullshit, and if you want the effective version, all you need to do is ask. Nope. They are more than willing to let you buy $20 packages of bullshit before they let you know the REAL stuff is only on the other side of that pharmacy window, and that it is about a buck cheaper.
I bought a package of the REAL Sudafed yesterday afternoon, and my sinuses have been clear ever since.
Monday, I am filing a small claims case against Rite-Aid to reclaim my $100, plus $5,000 in punitive damages. I’m sure the court will award me the direct damages, plus maybe around $1500 in punitive. The store will NOT want to appeal because they will not want the publicity.
As the average Joe Citizen, I know that I would have an uphill battle if I tried to go after the manufacturer directly. I don’t have that kind of time
, energy, or even the resources to take on a gigantic case such as that. But I CAN hit the local store, which has the potential of shoving shit uphill to the manufacturers if a LOT of people start filing small claims cases against their local drug store.
Personally, my goal is to simply get my $100 back — which I will. Everything after that is just icing on the cake. The law is on my side, so the small claims case is pretty much a slam dunk.
So if you get a cold and you want to try to reduce the effects of that cold or flu, know that whatever you buy over the counter will not work. Go ask for the REAL shit BEHIND the counter, and while you do so, complain to the manager that they are knowingly selling bullshit without informing the customer.
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Damn, is it possible I agreed with you TWICE this year?
I could delete this post and then nobody would know… :em05:
Allerest was my go-to years ago. The generic was $1.94 at Walmart and plentiful. First they limited the amount to purchase, then they put it behind the counter, and then it disappeared. Personally, I think they should just let the Meth-heads partake until they go feet up. That would allow a good sinus medication again.
Some jurisdictions have already either decriminalized or are turning a blind eye to hard drug usage. Seattle wants to copy the Vancouver BC model of having “Safe Injection Sites”, which I find to be completely insane.
Secondly, it is pretty hard to OD on meth. Back in the day, when I was using, I could easily go through an “eight ball” in a day. My average dose was a half gram, and on occasions I could do a ‘grand slam’ (a whole gram) up the arm. But that was a LONG time ago, working as a sound engineer for Alice in Chains. (crazy times…)
There is a greater danger of dying from whatever the drug was cut with. Lately, the cutting agent has been fentanyl. It used to be baby laxative.
If I were running the world, I would continue on with criminalizing drugs like Meth, Cocaine, and Heroin. Get caught using or possessing, I’d send your ass to prison for a minimum of five years, with the option of entering into and completing a ‘residential’, comprehensive drug treatment program that focuses on behavior modification. 500 hours in exchange for an early release on supervised probation for three years. After a successful completion of the supervised release, then expunge the drug conviction.
But I don’t run the world.
DJ, do you know of any drug rehab programs that have a decent success rate? My totally unscientific observations from working in AZ prisons was that the psychologists, group therapy and the like didn’t do very well. The chaplains got the same results or better.
We had one director that spent a lot of time and money on these programs, to the point of reducing infrastructure maintenance to the danger point. Her view was that cutting down the recidivism rate would pay off big in the long term. After five years, those numbers were exactly the same (and we had buildings falling apart).
Changing a person’s behavior is hard. They have to want to change, really badly, and put sustained effort into doing so. That’s probably why the chaplains did okay – their clientele is self-selected. “A man convinced against his will is of his own opinion still.”
Some folks say to decriminalize drugs, and let the addicts OD. My problem with that viewpoint is the number of folks I’ve talked to who got hooked as teens. It’s a great way for a sexual abuser to get the child to do what they say, and not tell anyone.
I am assuming you are asking about prison-based programs. They vary between the various states and jurisdictions, but the one I am most familiar with is the Residential Drug and Alcohol Program (RDAP) in the US Bureau of Prisons.
Most states — I’m guessing that Arizona is the same — offer some sort of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) program in a non-residential group setting. They tend to last about 10-12 weeks that will address criminal lifestyles and provides skill-building opportunities in the areas of rational thinking, communication skills, and institution/community adjustment.
These types of programs are basically informational, and do very little to change a person’s behavior. Recidivism rates still remain about as high as for those who don’t participate.
The BOP has both a CBT non-residential program for those who are ineligible to enter and participate in the 500-hour, nine to twelve month residential program. The RDAP program is a very intensive behavior modification program that is basically a subjective psychology course. Participants are live in separate quarters in the prison, and their daily lives revolve around the coursework and activities. It is very structured.
It operates on the carrot and stick approach that offers rewards for successfully completing the program. An inmate can have his or her sentenced reduced by up to 18 months off in exchange for an additional three years of intensive post release supervision, that will probably include a continuation of counseling after release. Recidivism rates drop to around 15 percent for those who have successfully completed the program and the post release supervision.
It is a very popular program for criminal defendants who have pled guilty and are looking for a referral from a judge and the prosecutor. I’ve referred hundreds of people to the program when I was working for the DOJ.
It’s been about thirty years since I’ve really thought about RDAP, so because of your comment here, I thought I would go see if it was still up and running.
It is, and apparently there have been a few changes or adjustments to the program over that time, but it still remains a great program to copy.
Here is a PDF that describes the program
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE RESIDENTIAL DRUG ABUSE PROGRAM (RDAP)
Interesting. No, we never did anything like that, and we could have done so for a lot less money than was actually spent. A minor modification to the classification system, and putting the qualified inmates into the same yard would have worked just fine. I guess there wasn’t sufficient opportunities for graft with the RDAP. Dora Schriro went on to other federal and state prison systems, and from what I can see, continued to spend more and deliver less. Sigh.
From what I understand, the only separation of the inmates is the residential. All inmates still go to a work assignment and yard with the rest of the population, but are segregated to their own housing unit and classrooms.
In the federal system, inmates are required to program for eight hours a day. That could be a work assignment, school, or a combination of the two. RDAP uses four hours of that day, and a work assignment or school would fill in the other four hours. Inmates can still go to recreation, chapel, or whatever during the remaining hours before lockup.
Get in any kind of trouble, and the inmate is transferred out of the program and back in to general population.
The only real ‘cost’ I can see would be paying the salaries of the counselors, who double as corrections staff on the unit. Materials are developed, and the program runs on a scheduled plan.
MOST of the expenditure happens in the community custody stage of the program. There are probation officers who work for the local US District Court, and then there are the RDAP probation officers who can get all up in someone’s business at any time of the day or night. From what I understand, a person on community release after completing the RDAP program can expect a UA at least five times a week. Sometimes even twice a day, without warning.
Any screwups while on the community custody supervision and the entire sentence is reinstated without good time and the inmate will serve out the remainder of their entire sentence.
Like I said, it has been a pretty damn effective program.
And yes, we’re getting totally ripped off by the cold medicine snake oil corporations. The darkly amusing part to me is how one nostrum: ‘Airborne’ – created by a teacher! was declared useless and heavily fined, while the pharmaceutical companies sell equally useless ‘remedies’ with no consequences. Airborne isn’t going to cure anything, but the zinc and vitamin C may actually do some good, unlike that OTC ‘cold medicine’.
Case filed, and summons served. Court is December 8th.