10-Ring

Wow it must be a full time job for him to keep poachers off of his land.

I see where you are coming from for sure. Not sure how bad the meth epidemic is down your way. I used to run around some down that way a long time ago before I had ever heard of meth. Meth in East Tennessee seems to stay kind of secluded. I was reading in the paper this morning where a town about 15 miles from me is having a hard time with meth problems, while I have not seen any evidence of meth where I live. A couple of times in the past year I have had to spend several hours in the UT Medical Center ER waiting room. It seems that every time I'm there the waiting room is steady until about dark 30 then the waiting room is cram packed with 20 somethings that look like the only thing wrong with them is the fact that they lack a job. I've been told by friends that work in the hospital that these are pill addicts and they show up every single evening with some fake ailment searching for pills. I know that it is easy to say let them do what they want and die. But if you have ever known anyone that is a drug addict before they were a drug addict and seen them go through it I would say that it is about the most horrible thing that you could ever sit back and watch. I wish I had a simple answer to fix it all.

Appology accepted sir! And thank you for the apology, that says a ton about your character. I think that we need to remember that everyone here (I hope) is on the same side in that we would all like to see meth eradicated. With that in mind lets try to work together. It's a long stretch for an internet forum to actually make a difference out in the world but it has happened before. Who knows? We may be able to collaborate a good idea in here. Anyway. My rationale is that if the key ingredient is difficult to obtain then meth production will come to a halt. I've tried to do a good bit of research but I can not come up with a conclusive answer to how much pseudoephedrine is used in the making of meth and how much a particular amount of it will yield in finished product. If anyone has accurate information about this then please share at your discretion. The best that I could come up with was 1 box of Sudafed would contain enough pseudo to produce enough product for two people to get high. This information is not very conclusive and also did not state whether they were using standard Sudafed, 12, or 24 hour formulas. Depending on how large of a prescription doctors could administer it could be very difficult for junkies to obtain enough pseudo to make meth if they have to doctor shop, get an appointment, and see the doctor to get a scipt. Every methhead that I have ever run across is dead broke, they will not be able to afford a trip to the doctor everytime they need a fix. (I'm not an expert at working the system but somehow I'm sure that they would probably figure out how to visit the doctor at taxpayers expense.) I really think that doctors can be blamed for the pill abuse epidemic in this country. The situation is not unlike that if pseudoephedrine were prescription only (Yes, I just contradicted myself.) Case in point two years ago I broke a bone, I was given a Percocet prescription in the ER on a Monday. I saw my orthopedic surgeon on Friday and he prescribed me 60 10mg hydrocodones. The next Monday (3 days later) I had surgery and he sent me home with a script for another 60. A week later I go in for a check up and he asks if I need any refills. Throughout the whole thing I only took maybe 10 of the pills, while he had prescribed me 120 and asked if I needed a refill within 10 days time. That was just irresponsible IMO. If there are no limits set on how much of a drug that a doctor can prescribe then no law or restriction will be totally effective. My conclusion is that there is no easy answer. The harder it is for the cooks to get pseudoephedrine the less of the product that they will be able to produce and the harder it will be for the methheads to afford their drug (keep your stuff tied down if you have them around!)

If I'm going out for dinner and plan to have a beer with dinner then the gun is coming with me but I'm not drinking more than one beer. If I'm going out drinking (almost never) the gun stays at home.

Why did you start this thread in the first place? It's clear that you do not have the answer to the problem or you would have not started this thread. As an individual that has dealt with methamphetamine addicts on a daily basis and has spent a countless amount of time studying the habits and processes of meth addicts I see the way to stop the problem is to take away their key ingredient. This however will be my last post in this thread. I can debate any topic, regardless of my personal feelings on that topic, but it must be done in a civil way. When you ask a question and someone provides you with an answer it is not polite to respond with "horse feces" if you don't happen to agree with what that person says. That is rude and makes you appear to be ignorant and incapable of holding an intelligent conversation. I seriously doubt that you actually read my whole post anyway. As I have stated, it takes so much pseudoephedrine to manufacture meth that the amount obtained from multiple prescriptions would not be enough to manufacture any meth. If you don't agree with that statement that is fine but instead of just spouting off something such as "oh that's a bunch of horse s***" provide reasons as to why the idea won't work. If there is a way to remedy this situation it will certainly require some sacrifice from society as a whole. I know it is inconvenient to have to sign for you medication, but we must look at this as a trade off. The registry would be 1000 times better if it was linked between every retailer in the state. The drug task force would come into my store and question and often ultimately arrest purchasers of pseudoephedrine products. The agents could pull up all of the buyers pseudoephedrine purchases statewide which was always a very good sign of whether they had a cold or whether they were involved in the meth business, there really is no in between. So although you may think that the registry is not working law enforcement is using the registry on a daily bases to track the activity of the people who are buying this stuff and providing it to meth cooks.

I will have to politely disagree with you on this. Addicts of opiates obtain their drugs through pain clinics or dealers that get the drugs through pain clinics. The amount of drug that an opiate addict uses varies by the addict but they can readily obtain enough to get their fix through the supply line simply because it is being produced and can be obtained from the pain clinics in a somewhat legal fashion. As I stated in my previous post meth cooks have several people buying the pseudoephedra for them. Without an outright ban of pseudoephedra it will always be availible in some amount. However if it was prescription only the amount that a person would be prescribed would be so minute that it would be a small drop in the bucket compared to what is actually needed to make meth. I'm not up to date on the current laws as I have been out of the business for a couple of years but as of 2010 there was a state registry of pseudoephedra purchases but there was no network which linked all retailers so buyers would buy their monthly limit at Kroger, then go to Walgreens, then CVS, etc. By making the ingredient extremely hard to get production would undoubtedly be slashed. Beware however the only thing worse than a methhead that is high is a methhead that is having withdrawals.

I worked in loss prevention for six years, most of that time was spent in Putnam and Anderson Counties, both big meth places. I've had a lot of experience around methheads and it is a very scary situation. One store that I worked at had a pharmacy and normally my tactic to catch shoplifters in that store was to sit in the pharmacy like I was waiting for a prescription, I would wait until a methhead came in and bought or tried to buy Sudafed, I would then follow them around the store while they stole other stuff, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. It was never hard to distinguish who was buying because they had a cold and who was buying because they were making bathtub crank. I'm not normally one to promote any kind of laws or regulations but the key to stopping meth is to make pseudoephedra containing products prescription only. It takes a good bit of pseudoephedra to cook up a batch of meth. It was very common for non users to buy for the cooks as the street value for a $10 box of Sudafed is around $40. Users will also buy it and trade it for the finished product. If pseudoephedra containing products were prescription only it would be nearly impossible for cooks to obtain enough ingredient to make any tangible amount of the drug. I'm sure addicts would move on to something else but not many drugs available today are more destructive than meth.

Ah let them do their thing. One of them will probably fall asleep with a joint in his mouth, it will then fall into his nappy beard, create a flash fire, catch his nasty dreadlocks on fire and before you know it there will be 10,000 hippies in a blaze of stench.

Slipping of the drive belt would be the first thing that I would check.

I've been going through the same thing lately as I have been doing lots of wading creek fishing. I've tried old tennis shoes and sometimes I wear old hiking boots with a pair of Smartwool socks. Each has it's ups and downs almost just depends on what I specifically plan on doing that day as to what footwear I choose.

Wouldn't it be great if we lived in a country where the government could tell us what color we could paint our cars?

To answer the question of the OP I would find that obscene. Obscene is tricky to prove though because it is subjective. What one person may call obscene and be offended by another person might find completely acceptable. I think a good litmus test is how a small child would act if exposed to that material. (I'm not in any way advocating doing this.) Would you want your four year old to see that? Didn't think so.

Dude, what kind of drugs do they have you on over there at the super double secret agent place? Oh and your mom said you can come upstairs now, dinner is ready.

Jonnin- Any sweet tea aficionado knows that the only way to make real sweet tea is to add the sugar to boiling water and then steep the tea bag in said sugary water. Adding the sugar to already cold tea will not properly properly sweeten the tea as it will not dissolve. This will leave you with an unsweet beverage with a sweet sand like substance in the bottom. OP- Sorry I've never heard of a crocus cloth. WestwindMike- I was thinking the same thing about hosepipes as I was reading the thread. More on sweet tea... First time I went to California I'd been off the plane at LAX for about 2 hours. Needless to say I was experiencing some hardcore culture shock. We go to a steak house and our waitress is your stereotypical dumb blonde, the sun and some other things probably had completely fried her brain. The conversation went like this. Watiress- What would you like to drink. Me- I'll have sweet tea. Her- I'm sorry, what was that? Me- I'll have sweet tea. Her- Sweet tea? I'm sorry I'm not sure what that is. Me- Do you have tea? Her- Yes, we have tea. Me- Well you take tea and you put sugar in it, that's sweet tea. Her (not sarcastic, dead serious)- Wow! That sounds really good, I'll have to try that sometime.

Just the kind of info I'm looking for. Looks like the fix to the strawberry milkshake is the replace the radiator with a particular aftermarket unit? Pretty sure I have the same lousy cupholders in my '97 Avalon. They are good for, well getting your beverage all over yourself and the interior of the vehicle. Can the sagging suspension be fixed with aftermarket coils?

I'm considering my next vehicle and I'm looking very closely at 4runners. Them seem to be a pretty good value over the pickups which I originally wanted. Seems that a Tacoma outfitted about the same as a 4runner is about twice as much. It's a Toyota so I know they are about bullet proof. Anyone know of any concerns? I'll be shopping within the next couple of months but I don't need it until the fall so I will take my time to find the right truck for the right price. I'm looking at the 1996 and up models in the $4-6K range. I've noticed they are offered in 4 cyl but I will be towing a 6x12 trailer full of firewood a few times per year and it seems like that 4 banger would be stressed under that kind of load? 4x4 is a must, gotta have it so I'm not stranded in the winter, plus I really hate dragging deer back to the truck, I'd rather take the truck in to get the deer. I see a few that have manual transmissions which I would prefer but they seem to be few and far between. However I'm not scared of an automatic with 200k on it if it has been properly maintained. Ideally I'm thinking V6, manual, 4x4, with the transmission not being a must. Thoughts?

Might work for you. I have a 23, and a 27 with a 9mm barrel as well. I can't carry the 23 comfortably (23 and 19 are same frame.) I can carry the 27 all day long. I carry a back up mag if I think it's necessary. I also have problems concealing the 23, but I'm a skinny guy.

It's okay, they're just New Yorkers...

This is really stupid. Here is a news flash, a cell phone is not a necessity. Unlike most of our population I do not use a cell phone, much anyway. I don't get coverage at home or work or in between. I travel quite a bit in the winter and I have a prepaid phone that I use then. That way my cell phone usage is costing me $30 a month for 1 or 2 months as opposed to the $1200+" per year I was paying with Verizon. The last 4 months that I had Verizon I used less than 20 minutes each of those months, so I couldn't justify keeping a cell phone. The difference between myself and the free phone recipients though, just to be fair, is that I do have a landline at home. I think the point of the program is so people can use the phones to help them get jobs and what probably more government benefits. Admittedly it is hard to get a job without a phone number, but here is an idea... Visit a business where you would like to work. Fill out an application, turn it in and explain that you don't have a phone. Return every 3 days or so and ask the manager if he has looked at your application. If you will appear eager and ready to work it is probably entirely possible that they will hire you without having a telephone. All these government programs giving people this and that disgust me. I think it is Obama's way of rewarding his voters. Get a job, earn it, or do without! Sorry I think I got into a rant there.

I'm sure Bloomberg is all over it.

Know what I think is scary? At the end of the article it stated that NYC voters opposed the ban on softdrinks 51%-46%, meaning that damn near half of NYC voters are really stupid.

I'm with BigK, if I carried a large knife or a fixed blade I may think about looking at regulations before carrying it in a foreign place. I really wouldn't think twice about carrying my 2 1/2 inch blade lockback. Heck, IMO a locking blade is a safety feature that makes the knife safer to use. I consider a knife to be a tool that I use everyday more than it is a weapon. I would check the regulations on carrying my knife just about as quickly as I would check those about wearing a belt or carrying a ball point pen. Usually I am in the "ignorance of the law is no excuse crowd" but when the New Yorkers are coming up with these asinine laws I just do kind of believe that "Ignorance is a perfectly acceptable excuse for stupid laws and that a person should make sure that their knife is well concealed at all times."

We can thank the mall ninjas for that one. Lights and lasers on a slingshot? No thanks, I'll take my hickory stick and a thick rubberband. I really didn't need to see that before I had coffee this morning. ATTN mall ninjas: it is in fact possible for a weapon to function without accessory rails, flashlights and lasers...

I played paintball with a slingshot ONCE, you gotta be tough for that, hurts way more than a paintball gun.

I saw three box turtles crossing the road within about a 3 mile stretch yesterday. I stopped and moved one, the other two were not in locations where it was safe to stop. And I wasn't interfering, I was helping him along the way. Interfering would be if I took him to where he just came from.