Can you guys still buy Sudafed without a prescription in Washington?
The law was never intended to directly reduce meth use. It was directly intended to reduce meth labs that were contaminating hotel rooms, rentals, timber stands, etc. And it did a fine job of doing that.
SGT - Your concern re neighborhoods and the dangers of hazardous materials is certainly valid and no one would think otherwise, but the challenge is for us as a people to enact laws that prohibit and target the undesirable behavior, while at the same time not creating an undue burden on society and/or making otherwise legitimate activities illegal.
HB 2485 was signed by Gov T K which is the law we are discussing. A reading of the Introduction or Purpose section of the law makes it clear that the primary concern or goal of the law was to establish a coordinated effort of prevention, enforcement and treatment.
The problem with laws such as this, is that it gives the illusion of making societal progress on a problem. The USE stats for meth have not plunged - indeed, small scale lab operations have been diminished, but my point initially was, and is, that broad sweeping laws which impact every single citizen with an added regulatory burden are not the way to address issues like meth use.
Since small meth lab use has gone down, but consumption of the drug has not, one can assume that it is being produced either in better hid locations or in fewer, but larger locations. In either event the net environmental hazards are the same: equal amounts of meth produce equal amounts of hazardous by product. It may just not be down the block from you, but to equate being "out of sight" with actual progress on arresting the use of the drug, and its many many social costs, is a dangerous thing to take comfort in.
You stated that the law was never intended to directly reduce meth use, but rather to reduce small meth labs. To the contrary, the law was intended to put a dent in the easy accessibility of meth, and thus its use. The law also sought to put an integrated system of child protection, prevention, and criminal apprehension in place. Reading the committee reports further evinces that the concern was not primarily about keeping hotel rooms etc clean and bio-hazard free, but rather to keep our communities clean and free of the plague of meth.
Again, good intentions often make really bad laws - this is one of them. I am sure hunters can see a similar pattern in the efforts to ban individual ownership of weapons because bad guys sometimes use weapons to commit crime. Most people used to use Sudafed for entirely legit purposes too. t bk