Mark Nestmann blogs:
How many felonies have you committed today? If you’re like most Americans, you probably violate federal or state law several times each day, without even knowing it.
Just ask Sally Harpold. A resident of Clinton, Indiana, Sally purchased some cold medicine for her husband back in March. A few days later, she purchased some additional cold medicine for her daughter.
Four months later, police showed up at Sally’s door with an arrest warrant. Her crime? She had purchased more than 3.0 grams of pseudoephedrine, a common and legally available decongestant for runny noses. Deputies led Sally away in handcuffs, and the local newspaper ran her mug shot on the front page. The headline read, “17 Arrested in Drug Sweep.”
Sally didn’t realize—and no one at the drug store told her—that pseudoephedrine is also an ingredient used in the manufacture of crystal meth, a highly addictive drug. Many states, including Indiana, now restrict sales of pseudoephedrine.
You might think that the authorities would have backed down when they realized that Sally had no intention of manufacturing crystal meth. But you’d be wrong. “The law does not make this distinction,” said Vermillion County Prosecutor Nina Alexander. “I’m simply enforcing the law as it was written.” She now faces up to 60 days in jail and a US$500 fine, along with a criminal record.
I wonder if my family will get arrested. Last month when we all caught an infection, we wound up buying a bunch of over-the-counter decongestants. Did any of us look to see if they contained pseudoephedrine? No. Would any of us have thought to check? No. We just wanted to get over whatever infection we had acquired.
Indiana — and any other states in the same situation — need to have some mechanism so that innocent purchasers or those who are using products properly are neither arrested nor treated as criminals by the states.