The Missing Link

February 23, 2006

The Patriot Act &The War on Drugs

When the Patriot Act is criticized its proponents, usually Republicans, justify it by raising the specter of terrorism. We musn't fall into a pre-September 11 mindset, they say. Law enforcement needs new tools to keep America safe from Al Qaeda, because this is a new kind of enemy, we're told.

I agree that terrorism presents new challenges for American law enforcement, and that we might have to sacrifice some liberty to attain an acceptable level of security.

I'm sympathetic to those who worry about the Patriot Act, however, because Congressmen make statements like this one:

“The growing availability of methamphetamine is a form of terrorism unto itself,� Congressman Dent said. “This bill will help reduce the supply of this deadly drug by making it more difficult to obtain the ingredients necessary for production. It will also stiffen existing penalties for anyone caught producing or trafficking in meth."

Funny thing, it frightens me to think of my next flight blowing up or a dynamite clad youth blowing himself up next time I see a band play at the House of Blues.

The growing availability of methamphetamine, however, doesn't scare me at all. It's too bad for those addicted to it. I'll be the first to tell them that developing a meth habit is an awful idea. But am I willing to curtail civil liberties to extend the drug war? Certainly not.

Neither are most Americans. That's why Congress is inserting this nonsense into the Patriot Act, a bill whose name grows more Orwellian each time a provision unrelated to terrorism is added in conference committee. The additions:

The Methamphetamine Epidemic Elimination Act, included in the conference report on H.R. 3199, the USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2005, will do the following to reduce the supply of meth and punish meth producers, traffickers, and smugglers:

* Restrict the sale of precursor drugs (common, over-the-counter medicines used in the production of meth);
* Require exporters and importers to report on their traffic of precursor drugs to prevent diversion of these drugs to meth production;
* Toughen federal penalties for methamphetamine traffickers and smugglers as well as those who produce or deal meth in the presence of children.

Yes, that's right: the Patriot act now has among its provisions restrictions on buying Sudafed over-the-counter.

Hit & Run touches on one irony of this legislation:

Ironically, some Democrats who objected to National Security Agency wiretaps in December actually championed provisions that step on privacy in the name of stopping meth. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, (D-Calif.), who voted for a filibuster after the revelation of the National Security Agency's domestic spying program in December, co-sponsored the CMA and helped insert it into the PATRIOT Act conference report after failed attempts to pass it through other legislation. The new provisions were stalled with the filibuster and temporary PATRIOT extensions, but now appear to be poised for passage with the compromise bill.

The CMA would move cold medicines such as Sudafed behind the counter, on the grounds that their active ingredient, pseudoephedrine, is a potential meth component. In DiFi's words, the solution to this non-problem would include "requiring purchasers to show identification and sign a log book."

Once you sign for your medicine, your name becomes part of "a functional monitoring program" that would "allow law enforcement officials to track and ultimately prevent suspicious buying behavior of ingredients for meth production," according to a Feinstein press release describing a similar stand-alone bill.

When you're operating on the premise that the availability of meth is a kind of terrorism, I suppose it makes sense to keep track of who buys Sudafed--which contains an ingredient used to make meth--and to consider them terror suspects whose behavior justifies greater police scrutiny.

Meanwhile those of us who haven't lost our minds would prefer that the government spend its precious intelligence resources tracking the other kind of terrorists--you know, the ones who fly planes into buildings and blow up pizzerias full of women and children.

This little kerfuffle also puts the controversy over the NSA wiretaps into a new perspective. President Bush justifies it by saying that the government only cares about listening to your conversations if you're engaged in behavior that endangers national security.

If these days we've set that bar as low as "buys Sudafed now and then" his explanation seems far loess comforting.

Posted by Conor at February 23, 2006 08:01 PM