Man Arrested for Allergies
Radley Balko | December 24, 2006, 9:06am
Those stupid over-the-counter meth laws claim an early innocent victim:
(I was) made to feel like a criminal – Made to feel low, dirty. Just totally degraded,” recalled Tim Naveau, who says he’ll never forget the hours he spent in Rock Island County Jail – he says all because of his allergies.
“They searched me, made me take my shirt off, my shoes off,” he recounted.
Tim takes one 24-hour Claritin-D tablet just about every day. That puts him just under the legal limit of 75-hundred milligrams of pseudo ephedrine a month. The limit is part of a new law that Quad Cities authorities are beginning to strictly enforce.
The law limits the amount of pseudo ephedrine you can buy. Pseudo ephedrine is an ingredient in medicines like Sudafed and Claritin-D, and it’s also a key ingredient in methamphetamines.
“It’s the only allergy medicine that works for me – for my allergies,” Tim explained.
The only problem is, Tim has a teenaged son who also suffers from allergies. And minors are not allowed to buy pseudo ephedrine.
“I bought some for my boy because he was going away to church camp and he needed it,” he said.
That decision put Tim over the legal limit. Two months later, there was a warrant for his arrest.
Via Jonathan Wilde at Catallarchy , who also notes that local officials make no apologies:
Rene Sandoval, Director of the Quad Cities Metropolitan Enforcement Agency – the agency that enforces the law – says it’s meant to catch meth makers, and does.
“We’ve seen a huge decline in methamphetamine labs,” Sandoval said.
But even if you’re not making meth, if you go over that limit – of one maximum strength pill per day – you will be arrested.
“Does it take drastic measures? Absolutely. Have we seen a positive result? Absolutely,” Sandoval stressed.
Get it? If you broke the law, you broke the law. And you're going to jail. Criminal intent stopped mattering in the drug war years ago.
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