I use that phrase to describe gun control all the time. It’s also applicable to the war on drugs. Here in Tennessee, everyone is scared to death of the meth. As such, they pass a lot of dumb laws trying to stop the meth from breaking into our homes and raping us and stealing our money. For instance, I currently have some sort of illness which I think is technically called the creeping fucking death. It’s horrid. No amount of chicken based soup or vitamin C or nasal rinse has helped. So, I finally broke down and decided to get some Sudafed.
If you walk into the local drug store, you can’t just grab a pack of Sudafed off the shelf, take it to the cashier and exchange your money for that Sudafed like you could do in a free country where they respect your right to engage in lawful commerce. Oh no. See, instead of being obviously sick (like me), you may be buying that to make the meth. And the meth will kill your babies and may cause drowsiness. So I have to grab a slip of paper off the shelf that has Sudafed written on it and take that piece of paper to the pharmacy counter. There, the pharmacist will ask me to sign for it and write down my driver’s license number. Because meth is the devil and causes global warming, we have a multiple purchase reporting requirement for Sudafed.
For me to be willing to deal with that mess, I have to be really sick. But I did it.
Now there’s competing bills to cause further pain in my ass. One may require a prescription for Sudafed. And the other will, I shit you not, create a Sudafed registry.
I hope every member of the Tennessee legislature who has supported these bills catches what I have. I think I’ll just buy some meth instead. Probably less of a hassle to extract the Pseudoephedrine from the meth.