Surly's Soap Box

I am going to attempt a fisking of this story:

ST. PAUL (AP) - Saying the state's efforts to curb methamphetamine use haven't worked, Attorney General Mike Hatch on Friday proposed going after big pharmaceutical manufacturers to recover the government's costs for meth-related problems.

Yes. I see it. Instead of encouraging personal responsiblity and fixing the blame on drug dealers and users, we need to go after the people with the deepest pockets.

Hatch said he's working on a lawsuit against about six large companies that make products containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine - active ingredients in cold medicines like Sudafed that are broken down by meth cooks.

Mike Hatch leans back in his office chair and stares dreamily at the ceiling, "Pharmaceutical companies: That's where the big money is! We took down "Big Tobacco", now we're going after "Big Pharmaceuticals"! Everyone hates them! We'll be rich!"

A state law passed last year makes those remedies harder to get, restricting their sale to pharmacy counters, limiting how much customers can buy and requiring them to sign for purchases. Law enforcement experts credit the law with sharply reducing homegrown meth labs in Minnesota.

The law is working. But we aren't making any money off of it.

But meth use is still going strong, with most of the drug coming in from other places.

"We're deluding ourselves that putting Sudafed behind the counter was the solution," Hatch said at a news conference. "It is an epidemic just like the avian flu, only it's here. It's real."

What avian flu epidemic? It's obvious that he is just trying to stir up fear by attaching meth to the future dreaded avian flu out break. Millions Dead! Meth and the Avian Flu are coming to Kill You!

Hatch is also pitching legislation to hold pseudoephedrine makers liable for damages caused by meth labs. The bill would be modeled on a 1994 landfill cleanup law that allowed the state to sue polluters' insurance companies to recover its costs.

And yet, in typical Mike Hatch style, instead of outlawing something so evil as cigarettes and Sudafed, he just want to make someone pay.

So to sum it up for ya:

Mike Hatch thinks he has found away to milk the Pharmaceutical companies the way Tobacco companies got it.

What a moron. Mike Hatch is more of a danger to our society than Meth is. He doesn't encourage personal responsiblity, he thinks that it's the States job to take care of people, and blames the problem on the people with the deepest pockets.

Drug prices sky rocket in Minnesota, thus making it even harder for people to afford their medications, and some democrat lawyer buddy of Hatch's will make millions, a la Mike Ciresi.

Hatch is an Idiot.

Minnesota,
News and Politics