Maybe You Can Fix Stupid

(Fred Weinberg/The Penny Press) – The arrogance of some politicians is absolutely amazing.

Take Democratic State Senator Sheila Leslie of Reno.

This bundle of genius introduced a bill in the Nevada Senate which would force you to get a prescription for over the counter drugs like Sudafed and Claratin because meth labs could use those drugs to make meth—even though the cooking of meth has been largely outsourced to the Mexican cartels.

The net effect of her “there ought to be a law” lunacy would be that if you had a stuffed up nose and needed some Sudafed, instead of going to the drugstore and buying a package for $5, you would first have to get a doctor’s appointment, go see the doc, spend $80 for the doc to take out his magic prescription pad and then go buy it as a controlled substance for maybe much more than $5.

All to stop some toothless hillbilly from cooking up the bathtub gin of drugs which it is now easier to buy from the Mexicans.

Well, reality caught up with Leslie last week and she pulled the bill because her colleagues were besieged by just plain citizens who told them the truth.

That being it was the dumbest idea since prohibition.

But before she faded quietly into the shadow of Mt. Rose, she told the largest newspaper in the state that it was the fault of drug company and retail lobbying in opposition to the bill, which she said threatened to cut into the money legal drug makers earn from sales to crystal meth producers.

Now make no mistake.  Our Northern Nevada radio stations ran quite a few commercials from a PAC that we are sure was funded by big pharma urging Nevada’s citizens to tell their representatives to vote no.

But they were preaching to the choir!

And we can just see the executives at Glaxo Smith Kline or Merck sitting down and plotting a campaign so they could keep selling OTC drugs to meth cookers.

Can you imagine what that ad campaign might look like?

“They (the drug companies) have thrown up a lot of diversionary tactics to protect their black market sales,” Leslie said.

Folks, this woman is actually a state Senator!  

You can’t make this stuff up.

In most places, this wouldn’t be a story from the current session of the Nevada Legislature.  It would be a Ron White comedy routine.  Or one from Larry The Cable Guy.

And there IS actually a law which our legislature ought to pass.

A sunset law.

A law which says that every bill which is passed by the legislature has an end date and needs to be reconsidered and passed again after a certain period of time.  Because as long as you can have a bill like this get this far, there’s always a chance it could pass.

The last check and balance ought to be time.  Five years, ten years whatever.

These guys and gals should have to revisit everything their predecessors have done every so often.

Then, at least stupidity would be codified only for so long.

And, to steal an idea from Ron White, maybe you CAN fix stupid.  Eventually.