Thursday, December 02, 2004

meth lab

My nose is itchy and my eyes are watering. I have Hayfever and I’m not enjoying it one bit. I try to avoid taking pills, tablets or sprays as much as possible and some years I manage to get away with it…. but not this year. This year I’m suffering.

So I decided today to go to the Pharmacy and get something to relieve the symptoms. It was with trepidation however that I made my way to the counter to ask for those little white pills, with last year’s experience still fresh in my mind.

I had casually sauntered up to the Pharmacist, carefree and relatively happy, and placed my order for one nasal spray and one box of 10 tablets. Then the questioning began… why did I need them? Was I sure I needed them? Why was I asking for this particular brand? It seems that Pharmacists had been getting pressured by Police and government about the supply of certain drugs over the counter that could be turned into Class A party drugs. Maybe I was a drug maker with a meth lab in my kitchen!

It seems ridiculous when you consider that the products I was asking for don’t contain the critical ingredients anyway and I was buying such an insignificant amount. Some party it would be, even if I knew how to manufacture the stuff! Even so, I was transfixed in the steely glare of the woman behind the counter as I was forced to write my details into her little notebook. Honest as I was, it never occurred to me that I could have written a false name in the book with no one being any the wiser.

So today I was wondering if I was going to once again be treated like a criminal, a shady underworld corrupter of youth. But today was different… no questions at all, just took my money and wrapped my two little boxes in a white paper bag.

Today’s paper has a story of the police intercepting a quarter of a million pseudoephedrine pills hidden inside furniture from China. My one box of hayfever pills doesn’t really measure up does it. Unless…. my bank card details are right now being traced and….

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