Popular Mom-and-pop water purification business shuttered by DEA's meth-hunting "knotheads"

Here's a Mercury News profile of Bob Wallace, an 88-year-old chemist who started a very successful cottage business selling iodine crystals under the "Polar Pure" brand new, used by hikers and disaster relief workers for water purification. Wallace has been put out of business by the Drug Enforcement Agency, who say they once busted a meth lab that was using Wallace's iodine in their process. The DEA says it's not their fault: "If Mr. Wallace is no longer in business he has perhaps become part of that collateral damage, for it was not a result of DEA regulations, but rather the selfish actions of criminal opportunists. Individuals that readily sacrifice human lives for money."

"This old couple, barely surviving old farts, and we're supposed to be meth dealers? This is just plain stupid," Wallace said, as he sat in the nerve center of his not-so-clandestine compound surrounded by contoured hiking maps, periodic tables and the prototypes of metal snowshoes he invented a few years ago. "These are the same knotheads that make you take your shoes off in the airport..."

For Wallace to comply, the state Department of Justice fingerprinted the couple and told Wallace he needed to show them such things as a solid security system for his product. Wallace sent a photograph of Buddy sitting on the front porch.

"These guys don't go for my humor," Wallace said. "Cops are the most humorless knotheads on the planet." Even so, Marco Campagna, Wallace's lawyer, promised to strengthen security and make other improvements to allay the government's concerns.

Federal agents say 88-year-old Saratoga man's invention is being used by meth labs (via /.)

(Image: thumbnail cropped from a photo by Nhat V. Meyer/Mercury News)

• [CSBD]

  Since  meth cooks are using electricity to make meth, the feds should shut down all electric companies.  Electric companies are supplying a vital component which if removed from the market, will cause meth cooks to stop cooking meth all together or will switch to campfires for heat… or maybe charcoal briquettes.

  They should also shut down municipal water supplies, gasoline companies, cell phones etc.  This will eventually cause meth to completely disappear.

  When stuff like this happens, the DEA agents responsible need to loose their jobs. If they had consequences for being idiots (like the UC Davis Chancellor) then I think the world would eventually become a better place.

  Federal agents seem to get away with anything no matter how outrageous… until they allow several thousand guns to walk into mexico… or something that is politically damaging. Nobody seems to care if their actions are damaging to society or common sense.

  IMO this is a clear cut case of structural violence directed at an honest businessman by an agent that doesnt seem qualified (intellectually) to be a shift leader at a Taco Bell. Worse, nobody above him/her has seen fit to reverse this decision and publicly reprimand him/her for the stupidity of this decision.

  • [Ambiguity]

    Since  meth cooks are using electricity to make meth, the feds should shut down all electric companies.

    Careful what you say. You may think you’re only joking, but don’t forget that brain-dead politicians have gone so far as to try to have baking soda regulated, ’cause it’s used by them there crack-heads.

    • [SDN]

      They’ve already got the EPA hard at work on that, and you know what those turf wars are like.

  • [Stonewalker]

    Regarding federalis and their impunity…  my first thought when I read your post was “at least they didn’t deploy 30mm incendiary grenades and burn down a bunch of homes with families inside this time.”

    • [Amy L Sacks]

      They’re saving “Operation Enduring Purity” for Xmas Day. :/

• [Bart]

  I feel safer already. Thank you, DEA for keeping me and my countrymen free in this War on Drugs. Speaking of the War on Drugs, how’s it going? Are the Drugs ready to surrender yet?

• [Scurra]

  “Individuals that readily sacrifice human lives for money.”  
  Pot, meet kettle.

• [AirPillo]

  What kind of awful excuse is that? 
  “Don’t blame us for how we react, the actions we consciously choose to undertake against a third party are completely beyond our control and the fault of unrelated people.”

  Are we supposed to forget that they are adults and have both free will and ethics?

  Also as is usual with their organization, their regulations have no impact on the supply of the offending reactant

  • [Ambiguity]

    Are we supposed to forget that they are adults and have both free will and ethics?

    As far as I can tell the DEA has neither.

  • [pitchspork]

     Dude, did you watch that video? That’s a lot of work! Meth cookers would never go for that. Uhhhhh… wait…

    • [AirPillo]

      If you think that’s too much effort, have you ever seen how they get the phosphorous they need?

      Matches, pocket knife, 36 hours of whittling, ???, profit!

      Lazy people don’t do synthesis, you can make plenty of money just casually extracting mescaline hydrochloride, speaking from experience.

• [Mister44]

  Sigh. Goddamnitsomuch.

• [Ambiguity]

  Excuse me while I put my righteous indignation on, but….

  “If Mr. Wallace is no longer in business he has perhaps become part of that collateral damage, for it was not a result of DEA regulations, but rather the selfish actions of criminal opportunists.”

  He has a point I guess, but he’s missing the fact that it’s the DEA who are the fucking opportunists, destroying people’s lives left and right, destabilizing countries, and trampling civil rights, all so they can have a freaking job…

  • [Guest]

    a job AND a justification for their self-righteousness, the most destructive human emotion. 

• [nixiebunny]

  There’s a fine PBS documentary about meth that describes the lobbying work of  the company that makes the main ingredient, Sudafed, to ensure that it’s available without prescription.

  Why isn’t the DEA lobbying Congress to get Sudafed put back under prescription, rather than attempting to regulate iodine,which is used for hundreds of other things?

  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meth/view/

  • [Guest]

    Why isn’t the DEA lobbying Congress to get Sudafed put back under prescription, rather than attempting to regulate iodine,which is used for hundreds of other things?

    $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ {i wish the blink tag worked}
     

    • [Constance Reader]

      Because neither Sudafed nor any other allergy meds of its class are scheduled substances.  None of the ingredients in these meds are scheduled substances.  Do you really want to have to make an appointment with your doctor, take time off work to go to their office, wait an hour for a visit, and fork over a co-pay every time the pollen count rises?  Think about it. 

      • [The Chemist]

        Because neither Sudafed nor any other allergy meds of its class are scheduled substances.  

        I understand what you’re saying, but you do realize that your assessment is based on reason and critical thinking, and American drug policy isn’t. So far be it from me to disagree with the argument that the only reason Sudafed isn’t prescription-only is lobby-money.

      • [Guest]

        I lived a spell in Willits CA,  so YES. I DO. ACTUALLY.

      • [jandrese]

        To be fair, you need to have your information written down to buy Sudafed anymore.  Basically the Feds were trying to apply the same standard to these guys, but because they’re literally a grandma and grandpa outfit they didn’t have the infrastructure to support that. 

        • [Jorge Emilio Emrys Landivar]

          And this is why such restrictions trash the market.

    • [Armand Kochdiesel]

      Why should people with seasonal allergies, who have been using pseudophedrine properly for decades without prescriptions, have to jump through the hoops of making unneeded doctor’s appointments, paying co-pays, sitting around with their thumbs up their asses while pharmacists fill their precriptions?  Dealing with all the petty time- and money-wasting hassles of refilling prescriptions, having to keep track of then they expire, needing refills on holiday weekends and all the rest of the bullshit that comes with needing a permission slip and a bunch of expensive documents in order to get something to deal with simple damn hayfever?

      Why the fuck are we tolerating this sort of nonsense?  This is the sort of petty micromanaging that convicted prisoners are expected to put up with, not free god-damn people in a supposedly free country.

      What’s next?  Prescriptions for aspirin?  Rx-only Vitamin C in case crazy Linus Pauling cultists need to be “protected” from trying to cure cancer with a fistful of Vitamin C tablets every day?

      When do we say enough is enough and start throwing ropes over lamp-posts?

      • [Antinous / Moderator]

        Why should people with seasonal allergies, who have been using pseudophedrine properly for decades without prescriptions, have to jump through the hoops of making unneeded doctor’s appointments, paying co-pays, sitting around with their thumbs up their asses while pharmacists fill their prescriptions?

        Well, I don’t think that it should be restricted at all.  It’s a much less dangerous drug than acetaminophen, which actually kills quite a few people. 

        However, under the current system, you have to have to go up to the pharmacist, wait in line and have your driver’s license entered into the system in order to buy Sudafed.  And if you buy more than they think you need, the DA arrests you. 

        Getting a prescription with unlimited refills and calling in advance would take less time than the current way of doing it.  And you wouldn’t be prosecuted for having allergies.

    • [Jorge Emilio Emrys Landivar]

      because it never was a prescription only drug?  Heck, during the 20′s neither was morphine.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    It would be easier to get Sudafed if it were a prescription drug. And then old ladies with allergies wouldn’t be prosecuted for over-buying.

    http://boingboing.net/2009/09/28/indiana-prosecutor-s.html

    • [Jorge Emilio Emrys Landivar]

      You mean like they currently aren’t for prescription narcotics?  Oh wait they totally are.

• [Childe Roland]

  What is the answer to meth? It is a severe problem here. People walking around with no teeth, multiple theft convictions, destroyed families, children taken away and put in foster homes.   Locally, it  is way more of a problem than any other drug on the planet.  I have done my share of drugs hard and soft but it is one I would never ever even try.

  • [Ambiguity]

    What is the answer to meth? It is a severe problem here. People walking around with no teeth, multiple theft convictions, destroyed families, children taken away and put in foster homes.

    It’s a good question, and I don’t think anyone really knows of a “final solution,” but a good first step would be to start dealing with meth addiction as a medical problem and not a legal one.

    • [Guest]

      Totally. I’d say fuck the deficit and give the people who aren’t on meth, yet, jobs, instead.

  • [phisrow]

    Given that extralegal methamphetamines(the FDA-approved version is fairly uncommon; but doesn’t seem to have a safety profile too markedly different from other psychostimulants) are widely known as being the drug that is probably even less fun than heroin, I’d want to see some work on what drives people to using the stuff.

    My suspicion is that the easiest anti-meth strategy would be to lower the price of something considerably less dangerous; but currently harder to cook yourself(which is to say, almost anything presently illegal, though I’m not sure what the best one would be)… Some work on the social and economic pathologies of high-meth areas would probably also not go amiss.

  • [ultranaut]

    The answer to meth abuse seems simple: Identify the abusers, teach them how to reduce the harms their abuse causes.

    I think if we gave meth abusers a prescription for it in exchange for participating in a treatment program that provided therapy and an education in being a responsible drug user we could significantly reduce the severity of the problems their meth abuse causes our society. Over time they would learn to self-regulate their drug intake more effectively and to better recognize the negative consequences of their behavior. From there we can probably get many of them to quit entirely, but even the ones who don’t will at least be less prone to behavior that creates severe problems for society.

    I’ve never done meth myself, I grew up around enough tweakers to be terrified of amphetamines in general. It’s a healthy fear to have. Several years ago I was diagnosed with ADD, I tried all the non-amphetamine treatments and they all had bad side effects or just didn’t help me. Then we started trying the amphetamines. They all worked great and had minor side effects. As a regular amphetamine user I’ve been very careful about regulating my use and ensuring I don’t develop an addiction. It’s not particularly hard for me to do, but as awesome as amphetamines make you feel it’s easy to understand how the Sirens sweet song can draw so many people to wreck themselves in pursuit of pleasure.

  • [Nathan Hornby]

    The answer is complicated, but the cause is also complicated.  But these are things the authorities are not interested in; they care much more about action, however inconsequential it might be.  If they actually tried to address the reasons why people want these drugs in the first place they’d have a lot more success, but they’re not even vaguely qualified to fix society, just police it – which is reactionary.

    One thing I can tell you: drugs aren’t bought because someone is selling them; it’s because there’s a market for them.  Drug gangs are no more a consequence of greed than corporations.

    Supply and demand is a very simple concept; and yet the police think they can fight the problem by removing 0.1% of the supply – and yet even if they could remove 100% of the supply they’re doing nothing to reduce the demand. Other than fear tactics and misinformation, which has been consistently shown not to work, over many, many decades.

• [UnholyMoses]

  This reminds me of when the DEA forced all the pharmaceutical companies out of business for selling the main ingredient in meth, and then they … uh …

  Oh, wait …

• [lknope]

  From the article:  “Wallace said the new rules mandated that he had to pay a $1,200 regulatory fee, get federal and state permits, keep track of exactly who was buying his product and report anyone suspicious. ”

  That is so ridiculous on so many levels!  First, what, is he going to ask his customers to show ID?  Of course not.  That is not the law (as far as I know), so the most he could do is ask his customer give their names, which hello, they could easily lie about and would lie if they were meth dealers. 

  Second, report anyone suspicious?  Who would be considered suspicious?  Someone who was stupid enough to make a comment about meth in front of him?  You are not going to report your customers unless you are 100% sure they are meth cooks/dealers because you want to keep their business. 

  Third, it is not his fucking job to do the DEA’s job for them.  Clearly, it is easier for the DEA to harrass this gentleman rather than concentrate their efforts on the “criminals.”

  Fourth, we might as well take down the names of anyone who buys alchohol in case they drive drunk later or anyone who buys a knife in case they assault someone with it, etc, etc.  Anything that could be used to commit a crime later would be on their list which is almost everything.  

  • [Trent Baker]

    A commenter on slashdot provided a somewhat more clearer view of the situation, basically Bob Wallace kicked up a fuss about paying the license fee and keeping tabs on buyers so the DEA decided to investigate and discovered the chemicals where unsecured, ie: stored in his garage.
    What I want to know is, why doesn’t he sell the idea to a company and live off the profits and royalties, I can’t imagine he has much of a distribution network from his garage.

  • [Jorge Emilio Emrys Landivar]

    We don’t live under the rule of law anymore, so they can do this to him and the courts will look the other way.

• [Guest]

  I’m voting Bob Wallace in 2012

• [dragonfrog]

  http://www.rxlist.com/desoxyn-drug.htm

  Used to treat ADHD, particularly when the side effects of the other commonly used medications are too severe.  Because methamphetamine when made to pharmaceutical standards – that is,  methamphetamine itself, without the residues of  industrial solvents and lord knows what else left in it by illegal meth cooks with a restricted chemical supply – is gentler than Ritalin and Adderall.

  Just throwing that out there.

  • [GlenBlank]

    Because methamphetamine when made to pharmaceutical standards [...] is gentler than Ritalin and Adderall.

    The purity of the drug is certainly important – no argument there. 

    But in addition to that, you need to add, “…and when taken in a time-release formula like Desoxyn, at the low doses generally prescribed, and discontinued as recommended when tolerance develops.”

    Impure meth is part of the health issue, but high doses and rapid-release dosing are what make it so dauntingly addictive and so hazardous to health.  

    Many – perhaps most – of its unhealthy effects are a direct result of the drug itself.  The doses that an acclimated addict takes for ‘recreational’ effects, taken constantly, *will* (among other things) make almost anyone a paranoid psychotic over time.  

    No matter how pure the drug may be.

    Even less-than-totally-pure illicit meth can be – and in some circles is – used (reasonably) safely as a functional stimulant – like coffee, but more effective, and with fewer side effects.  

    The key is to only use it in very very small, very carefully divided doses, and only for limited periods – and with plenty of time off in between sessions of use. 

    But that only produces functional effects – keeps you awake and alert and clear-headed.  It’s not ‘fun’ – it doesn’t really get you *high*.  So most ‘recreational’ users take much higher doses, and use the drug almost constantly – except when they crash or run out.

    And *that* sort of use is very, very bad for you, even if the drug is pure.  Here’s part of the manufacturer’s warnings about high-dose abuse of the pure prescription drug:

    There are reports of patients who have increased the dosage to many times that recommended. Abrupt cessation following prolonged high dosage administration results in extreme fatigue and mental depression; changes are also noted on the sleep EEG. Manifestations of chronic intoxication with methamphetamine include severe dermatoses, marked insomnia, irritability, hyperactivity, and personality changes. The most severe manifestation of chronic intoxication is psychosis often clinically indistinguishable from schizophrenia.

    As is so often the case, it’s the dose that makes the poison – and in this particular case, high doses are definitely still poison, even without the impurities.

    (N.B. – this does NOT mean that I endorse the madness of the ‘War On Drugs’ in any way.  The War On Drugs makes things *worse*, not better. Methamphetamine abuse is a medical problem, not a military threat.)

    • [dragonfrog]

      Good points, and thank you for posting them.

• [benher]

  “Individuals that readily sacrifice human lives for money.”

  American politicians? Bankers? The 1%? Defacto Royalty? DHS? Stop the suspense! Who on earth do you meeeean?

  PS to DEA: Meth is a problem now because you wasted decades busting “gateway” potheads… Profit!

• [petertrepan]

  I hesitate even to mention the name, but if this kind of stuff raises your ire you should vote for Ron Paul in Republican primaries early next year. Not all states require you to be a member of the party in order to do that.

  I’m not going to defend every stance Ron Paul takes, because I don’t agree with everything he says — in fact, some of it worries me. But he’s the only politician whose main focus is stopping endless warfare and the erosion of civil liberties. If we wind up losing useful government agencies because he gains office, I’d consider it a small price to pay for winding down our wars on Iraq, Afghanistan, drugs, “terror,” and the security of civilian rights.

  • [SomeGuyNamedMark]

    Same here, though Ron Paul has some ideas that bother me just enough to push me away from him.  I wish that wasn’t the case because, like you said, he is the only candidate saying  some things (like pulling our military back) that need to be said.

    • [petertrepan]

      Still, if your state has open primaries and you aren’t interested in the Democratic primary ballot, you could vote for Ron Paul in primaries and Obama in the general election.

      EDIT
      I suppose I omitted the [other Republican candidate] option there, but… ugh. What a dog’s breakfast of choices.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    I hesitate even to mention the name, but if this kind of stuff raises your ire you should vote for Ron Paul in Republican primaries early next year.

    Ron Paul supports giving the states the right to make their own drug laws. Do you realize how bad that could be? Some states have the death penalty and are far more anti-drug than even the federal government.

    And please keep the Ron Paul chat post-related, not just random nuzzling.

  • [cdh1971]

    With a solution like Ron Paul, all other problems pale in comparison.

• [DouglasLucchetti]

  Who does the Department of Justice work for? Some cave filled with hold-overs from the Nixon administration? Why doesn’t our president, y’know the CHIEF EXECUTIVE, elected by in a mandate from the voters, leave the show-manship of travel to Hawaii or wherever the next conclave of billionaires is being held or lighting the national xmas tree to some flunky and address the real problems such as this one. Pardon these folks now, compensate them for the intrusion, and tell the Dept of Justice to either find real work or some other work or they will effectively be retired.

  • [Layne]

    Nah, he’s busy playing stupid while his agencies kick down doors and arrest people for pot that’s been declared legal in their states. It’s not like he’s in charge or anything. 
    “OK, hah hah, next question.”

    Now they’re busy choking out business that may even inadvertently run afoul of U.S. laws – i.e. idoine sellers, raw milk farmers, Gibson guitars, etc.  

    To these guys, we’re ALL gonna be “collateral damage” sooner or later. 

  • [Amy L Sacks]

    Tee hee hee.  It’s so funny to imagine Democrats as something other than self-righteous, craven opportunists who’d sell their own grandmothers for a chance to  natter on about bullshit “family values” while they use drugs as a convenient excuse for ever-escalating race and class war.

    Excuse me.  I think I’ll go get drunk now.

• [SomeGuyNamedMark]

  Is this part of the right-wing’s “pro jobs” and “the great American entrepreneur” platform?  They’d have no problem making sure those meth labs had access to lots of guns though.

  • [Mister44]

    re: “They’d have no problem making sure those meth labs had access to lots of guns though.”

    That’s a baloney statement.

  • [Brian Sprague]

    Yeah!  This damn right wing administration… The chain of command all the way from Obama and Holder at the top down to the individual DEA Agent is nothing but right wingers.

• [jimbuck]

  I have Polar Pure.   That stuff is great for making meth, I mean, purifying water when I’m hiking.

• [peterkvt80]

  The DEA should also watch out for “Weird looking people” gathering seaweed. Nowadays iodine is extracted from mineral salt but in the old days it came from seaweed. Each ton of kelp that you burn can yield 22lbs of iodine.

  • [cdh1971]

    Funny you should mention how they used to extract iodine from seaweed. 

    I live in Eugene, a town that fancies itself to be all green and organic. Several meth dealers here sell a brand of meth called ‘Kelp’ that is promoted as an ‘organic’ and green type of meth because the iodine used in its manufacture is made from seaweed collected on the Oregon Coast. Some of the labels also promote it as ‘fair trade’ meth, which sounds like a crock to me.

    I can’t vouch whether or not this fancy so-called organic meth is any better than the other stuff ’cause I try to stay far, far away from meth and people who are using it.The bizarre thing is that this is clearly aimed towards a demographic I associate more with marijuana, powdered cocaine and microbrews. Many hippyish people I know would be more likely to use heroin than meth….and yet I keep hearing of this ‘Kelp’ meth.

• [Chuck]

  Can I pay some meth cookers to purchase my competitor’s brand of product?  Might be worth a shot.

• [ill lich]

  Polar Pure is probably the single most used water purification product on the Appalachian Trail, it is easy to use, small and light, and lasts forever.  I have used pumps, tablets, chlorine-based chemicals, and Polar Pure is still the best. 

  This is a f$%king travesty.

  Even with “security” at his house it won’t stop meth-labs from buying iodine and using it.   It’s f$%king IODINE, it’s an ELEMENT, it exists in nature.  If only meth-heads started using the element “Asinine” then suddenly the cops would have to stop being so damn asinine.

  • [Jorge Emilio Emrys Landivar]

    Only governments would try to ban elements.

• [Bevatron Repairman]

  “If DEA Agent Smith is no longer in business he has perhaps become part of that collateral damage, for it was not a result of a distaste for public servants, but rather the selfish actions of liberty-loving Americans.  Individuals that readily sacrifice the illusion of security for freedom.”

• [The Chemist]

  When all chemicals are illegal, only criminals be will composed of chemicals.

• [Stonewalker]

  Wait.. I think I’ve got a few packets of this stuff in a cabinet somewhere… should I be worried? ***shifty eyes***

  No but seriously, I wonder if they would try to use any amount of water purification tablets as PC for a warrant.   Damn you police state!

• [ridestowe]

  so the next time they find equipment in a meth lab that was bought at home depot, home depot should be shut down right?

  • [Amy L Sacks]

    If the level of service available at my local branch is any indication, don’t do it!  You could put at least five or six employees out of work!  Tsk.

  • [Jorge Emilio Emrys Landivar]

    Home depot is big enough to tell the DEA to go screw itself.  He isn’t.
    This is ultimately what matters when the market is regulated, how much political pull you have.  It trades working markets for corruption.

• [Alvis]

  Is anyone else a little a little off-put by this incredibly loose use of the word “invention”? 

  It’s just iodine – he invented it the same way Morton’s invented salt.

  • [Tribune]

    “Is anyone else a little a little off-put by this incredibly loose use of the word “invention”? “I am going to assume this is a problem with the reporting and not him. Someone followed the logic he is an inventor (see the snowshoes) therefore the product must be an invention. 

    but yeah I was really confused how he invented iodine.

    • [Another Kevin]

      The invention – and it’s rather a clever one – is a glass bottle that incorporates both a guard that keeps the iodine crystals from being poured out, and a thermometer that reads out directly in terms of the amount of saturated iodine solution needs to be added to treat a litre of suspect water. The combination results in tremendously greater ease of use than just carrying a phial of elemental iodine.

      Speaking of which, I wonder if he has the bottles available for sale, or if they’d now be accounted “drug paraphernalia?” (after all, they have no other use than to hold elemental iodine, which we’ve already established is now a forbidden substance). I’d gladly buy one without the iodine and supply my own illicit iodine, if they can be had.

    • [Jorge Emilio Emrys Landivar]

      He made it powder instead of pills so that it works better for purifying water.

  • [Jorge Emilio Emrys Landivar]

    No he invented a special way to deliver it efficiently in elemental form so it works really really well.

• [SKR]

  Who would have thought that sales and reporting regulations could put a corporation, Polar Equipment Inc, out of business?  Maybe the lack of civil liability corrupted this old man sooo much he was paying for the new camper with sales to meth labs. C.c

• [David]

  I believe that the government gives IQ tests to all applicants. If you are normal or above, you flunk, and are not hired.

  I need to move to another country. No shit.

• [CP-S]

  They need to watch out for table salt; they iodize that stuff and you could cook it down for meth!

• [Mister44]

  I’m confused why the DEA seems to be blamed on the “right wing”. The “left wing”  has nooooooo problem funding the DEA nor expanding their reach.

  You know – interesting thing I read the other day – in 1982 something like 65% of congress was considered “moderate”. Today that has shrunk to basically “none”. Fucking partisanship has become the  norm. The Party is now more important than the country. Shit needs to get done and inflexible dicks aren’t going to do it.

• [John Ridley]

  What the HELL is the point in insisting that they have security?  They’re supposed to be keeping people from stealing their product, which is easily available at hiking and camping supply places.

• [strugglngwriter]

  All you Ron Paul fans out there. Do you really think if elected he’ll be able to pass anything re: the DEA past a Republican or Democratically controlled Congress. He won’t be elected King and politicians are too scared to do anything humane about drugs.

  • [SKR]

    Well the DEA is under the DoJ which is a cabinet level department the head of which serves at the President’s pleasure.  So yeah a President that wants to do something to curtail the WOD has some recourse without engaging the legislature.

    • [strugglngwriter]

      Okay. I guess I’m used to our current President who seems like his only power is to start wars.

    • [Jorge Emilio Emrys Landivar]

      Yep, he could, but he won’t.  Hell, the president has a pardon power so he could issue blanket pardons, the way Jefferson did, but that won’t happen either.

  • [Jorge Emilio Emrys Landivar]

    He won’t have to. 

    The banning of drugs is handled at the executive level through regulatory law, not at the legislative level.  Furthermore, he could issue blanket pardons, the way Jefferson did.

• [petertrepan]

  I’m a little unclear on why drug law enforcement should be handled separately from regular law enforcement.

  • [Guest]

    In short, regular law enforcement is not a public health issue. 

• [Manuel Smirnoff]

  We have met the terrorists, and, in the largest proportion, they are our government. 

• [Art]

  “Wallace sent (them) a photograph of Buddy sitting on the front porch.”

   :)  I love it! 

• [Fernando Martinez]

  It’s dismissive to say that the DEA is a bunch idiots – it makes more sense to assume that Bob Wallace had some business enemies with DEA connections. I’m wondering what competing company paid off the DEA to do this to the old man. Similar things have happened before. The obvious example is with marijuana – and I even recall a similar tactic with early commercial refrigeration companies that sold ice. And I mean “ice” as in frozen water, not crystal meth. Businesses do this to one another all the time. 

• [James Hightower]

  I have a bottle of Polar Pure in my earthquake survival kit. It’s genius. It’s a tiny 3 oz bottle with iodine crystals in it, and it will create enough iodine solution to purify 500 gallons of water. I’ve found nothing else that even comes close. There is no replacement.

  The real genius is in the bottle. It’s a self-contained lab for manufacturing water purification solution. You can treat 500 gallons of water  with pPolar Pure, while the same size bottle of Aquatabs treats 12 gallons. 

  I live in Los Angeles. After the Northridge quake, water still came out of the taps, but the treatment plants were offline, and the water was not safe to drink without boiling or purifying. I ended up using household bleach to make drinkable water. Had my apartment building been evacuated, I would have been stuck.

  There is no way I could carry enough traditional water tabs in my kit to supply water for my family and my neighbors (who wouldn’t give water to their neighbors?) Polar Pure makes it easy. If you live in disaster country, get one if you can find one.

  I really hope this gets settled.

• [Another Kevin]

  I’m indirectly one of this guy’s satisfied customers. (I say indirectly because I bought his product from an outfitter, not from him.) The combination of elemental iodine with a bottle to make a saturated solution (and keep the crystals out of the water bottle) and a liquid-crystal thermometer (that reads out directly the correct dosage) is little short of brilliant. I use the system chiefly as a backup to microfiltration, since the required amount of elemental iodine is not recommended for long-term consumption, but I carry it on every trip.

  And now I won’t be able to get it any more.

  Obligatory authoritarianism: It’s a shame that drug use is so rampant in our society that everyone’s freedom has to be restricted. But I suppose that drugs are such a scourge that everyone is reasonably suspect. (And the Fourth Amendment bans only unreasonable searches.) Clearly it was reasonable for the DEA to seize this guy’s business, because if it were unreasonable they wouldn’t have done it. And now I’ll likely be subject to search because I never registered my little phial of Polar Pure. Fortunately, I have nothing to hide. I have Polar Pure in my backpack, not drugs.

• [jimkirk]

  When iodine is outlawed, only outlaws will have iodine.

• [Kevin Sweeney]

  Perhaps they should be investigating and shutting down Coca-Cola and Desani, among others, over the common use of their products by drug makers, distributors and users of every stripe

• [Baldhead]

  I while back someone said something about the DEA being adults, with morals. BUt you see they are fighting a war. When somone is fighting a war, often their morals get left behind in pursuit of victory. That this happens to a far too many in the DEA is beyond obvious. Save a lot of lives and money by getting rid of it altogether.

• [Soliloquy]

  It’s got alternate uses too, you can make clothing!

  http://youtu.be/ODI7P7VsHrI

• [journey46]

  Flood the White House with protests. Demand the President do his job and fire these idiots.
  Google White House, select “contact” and then on the WH page “submit comments online”. Include the url of this article. Tell the President your vote next year depends on his actions if you feel strongly about it.

• [flickerKuu]

  Anyone see a re-occurring theme whereby Law enforcement goes after the “easy” “targets” of the “Drug War”, instead of say- the roots, sources, or violent criminals related to it?  Constantly old people, or hippies in their basement pot gardens, but not anything like Meth dealers, or Cartels, or violent street gangs. It’s like, why bother when you can “do your job” in safer environment creating the same amount of paperwork or numbers on a spreadsheet.

• [Guy Fawkes]

  Using the DEA’s logic they should shut down Walmart too because that’s where must Meth heads shop.

• [anonoped]

  At some point some people are going to say enough is enough and sacrifice themselves for the principle.

  Then we get to watch another Waco incident.

  Which will further allow authoritarians to try and take the rights of the people away.

  Or we could just have everyone in that section of the DEA fired and replaced with nobody.  Everybody would be happier then.

• [Thebes]

  So THIS utter bullshit from big brother is why I can no longer buy Polar Pure?

  Polar Pure is all I used during my hike on the AT from Georgia to Maine. The stuff is (was) cheap and lasted forever. A tiny pinch of some acid powder (citric acid etc) would turn the iodine into odorless and flavorless iodide. It was nearly effortless, foolproof, and weighed only a couple ounces. The pills leave a flavor even after your neutralize them, are easily damaged, and are much more expensive per liter treated.

  Our nation has been beset by a multitude of petty tyrants whom no longer benefit We the People.
  Many people have had enough of this broken system which is actually fixed. Long Live the Occupation, the Revolution is upon us and the Beginning is Near.

• [Guest]

  *AHEM*
  http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2540052&cid=38145370Since nobody on Boingboing actually RTFA’s, I’ll quote it for you:

  -The DEA doesn’t think he’s running a meth lab, they think people who run meth labs are buying his product to use.
  -The DEA has started keeping a much tighter rein on the active ingredient in his product in order to keep it out of the hands of the aforementioned meth labs (just like they did a couple years back with buying decongestants using psuedoephedrine). His response was:
  -He was supposed to pay $1200 for a license to handle this chemical and refused.
  -He was asked to keep tabs on who bought the product to the extent that he would report “suspicious” bulk purchasers. He refused.
  -The DEA asked him for proof that he has security where his product is made to keep people from stealing the active ingredient. He sent them a picture of his dog sitting in front of his garage.
  -He also does not appear to be able to tell the difference between the DEA and the TSA, as the article points out. This does not suggest he is good at dealing with bureaucracy.

  So basically, ‘poor old innocent helpless little guy intimidated by the government’ actually just refused to comply with government regulations that WOULD have allowed him to keep his business.  Just not as bootleg as he liked it.  Life’s a bitch.  When you make

  $100,000 a YEAR AS PER THE ARTICLE

  selling something out of your garage, someone wants to regulate it.. who’d have thought?

  • [The Chemist]

    -We know.
    -We know.
    -We know.
    -We still know.
    -That too.
    -Uh-huh.

    You’re still missing the various reasons these laws and measures are a priori stupid, ineffective, and ultimately a detriment to society.

    • [Guest]

      He’s a knothead. You’re not a jackass whisperer. No worries. 

  • [Jorge Emilio Emrys Landivar]

    Because people should be free to do voluntary activities without the government hassling them.

• [CLamb]

  Just how is crystal iodine used in the process?  I can’t believe that it is the critical link in synthesizing methamphetamine.

• [DocScience]

  Are Americans ready to just say NO to their nanny masters?

  Their “cure” not only doesn’t cure anything, but is worse than the disease.

  • [Jorge Emilio Emrys Landivar]

    We try, but we can’t.  We lost control of our government.

• [Alan Kellogg]

  Water is used in the manufacture of methamphetamine, why isn’t water banned?

• [carrstone]

  I’d offer blood if it would help to win this ‘war’, but am not sure that it is of any use after it has boiled.

• [The Chemist]

  Where’s the rule that says the government can’t outlaw eating fish?

  OH, that’s right- there isn’t one. Not unless you want to use a pretty elastic definition of a constitutional article or amendment, but at the end of the day, there just plain isn’t anything in that document  that keeps the government from doing this.

  There also aren’t any laws that say the state governments can’t pretty much do whatever they want. 

  Ron Paul is a state’s rights wolf decked out in “small-government” wool.

• [Armand Kochdiesel]

  Actually, there is.

  It’s called the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.

  Congress can only do those things it’s authorized to do by the Constitution.  The states are held to that standard as well by the Fourteenth Amendment’s incorporation of the Bill of Rights.

  If you’re going to toss around phrases like “state’s right wolf” it would be a good idea to actually know what you’re talking about first.