Three weeks ago, my throat started hurting. About two weeks ago, I started getting a runny nose. Then the mucus started to get bloody. Because I was traveling and had taken several sick days recently, I decided to power through it with the aid of over-the-counter medicine. There was little relief. I had to stop using my Sleep Apnea mask because my nose was so congested. The result was not only was I feeling sick, but exhausted as well from lack of real sleep. So two days ago, I cracked. I went to the pharmacist and – gasp – asked for Sudafed. I had to sign an electronic disclaimer and was told sternly that I could not have more than a certain amount of this dangerous drug. After two days of taking the pills, my nose has cleared up and I am able to sleep. Thank goodness – if it hadn’t, I’d be risking prison.

Take, for example, the family mentioned in this article by Jeffrey Tucker. The father and mother have been arrested an convicted of a Class C Misdemeanor simply for buying too many boxes of Sudafed. They’re lucky. One woman in Alabama, an habitual offender to be sure, was sentenced to twenty years in prison for buying “four boxes of medication containing pseudoephedrine at three locations within 12 days in December 2009.”