No Such Thing as A Meth Epidemic . . .

statistically speaking. Nonetheless, Congress has used "Meth" as a means of taking more of your civil liberties. They added "Meth provisions" and "Anti-trust provisions" to the PATRIOT Act, so as they can eavesdrop on more people.

The notion of a meth epidemic is silly. Moreover, when individual states ban the sale of cold medicine - people just replace the weak homemade stuff with the exponentially stronger stuff from Mexico. I know that's what I did (not really, it's a literary device). Plus, these laws annoy regular people who just want to be left alone. For example, Otter wouldn't buy cold medicine on his Arizona trip because he would have had to register to buy it - instead, he got his friend to buy it. I bet that's illegal (Otter, if you go to jail, I'll bail you out - sorry for ratting you out).

Anyway, I've linked above to an article that exposes the media's role in expanding the Myth of Meth:

In its effort to convince the world of the threats posed by meth, The
Oregonian has sacrificed accuracy. According to an analysis of the paper's
reporting, a review of drug-use data and conversations with addiction experts,
The Oregonian has relied on bad statistics and a rhetoric of crisis, ultimately
misleading its readers into believing they face a far greater scourge than the
facts support.

Few local media watchers are willing to criticize The Oregonian's
coverage of the meth problem. But skepticism about the growing frenzy has begun
to appear in the pages of major papers across the country, from The Wall Street
Journal to The New York Times, where columnist John Tierney recently wrote that
politicians have become so meth-obsessed, "they've lost sight of their duties."

Miami Herald media critic Glenn Garvin, who is critical of national
drug reporting, says he is disappointed in The Oregonian's reliance on shaky
numbers.

"This idea that we are in a meth hell, it is just not right," he
says. "It does not comport to the numbers. It's nonsensical."

Anyways - it's a good article, which I stole from Hit & Run, which I am too lazy to link.

Kid H