The war on unstopped drains
In Illinois, a Drano registry:
A new state law requires customers purchasing products containing sodium hydroxide, or lye, and other corrosive chemicals to show a legitimate photo ID and to write their name, address and date of birth. And the store clerk will log the time and date of purchase.
Intrusive? Illinois lawmakers said Friday they agree that regulating drain cleaners and other products is needed to protect the public from those who may use them to harm.
January 4th, 2012 at 9:33 am
This is very important for the protection of the people. It’s not like you can make lye from wood ash or something.
January 4th, 2012 at 9:41 am
Not just anti-gun.
Oh but showing an ID to vote. Well that’s different.
January 4th, 2012 at 10:04 am
How about Twinkies! Those things are killers.
January 4th, 2012 at 10:05 am
I could strangle someone with my 15′ drain auger. I think that augers over 10′ long should be banned. Jack.
January 4th, 2012 at 10:12 am
First they came for Big Macs and I said nothing. The they came for Coca Cola and I said nothing. The they came for Drano………
January 4th, 2012 at 11:02 am
You’re telling me I now have to drive OUT OF STATE to buy Drano? FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!
January 4th, 2012 at 11:11 am
There is some reasoning behind this. Lye is one of the chemicals used in converting pseudephedrine into methamphetamine. So, I fear, is lithium. They are going to be coming after the lithium batteries next.
January 4th, 2012 at 11:40 am
Fear mongering.
January 4th, 2012 at 11:49 am
So the next time someone is attacked with drano, they are going to go and collect this drano registry and do what with it again?
I don’t understand how lists are supposed to stop malicious behavior. And they don’t even attempt to explain it, we are all just supposed to know.
January 4th, 2012 at 12:01 pm
TomCat,
The same way they think they can stop gun crime by taking guns away from people that have not committed a crime!
January 4th, 2012 at 12:50 pm
Well, the pseudoephedrine registry put the meth cooks out of business, right? I mean, it’s not as though the anti-meth production laws encouraged the development of the easiest meth production method ever, right?
January 4th, 2012 at 2:10 pm
We’re all overlooking the real reason behind this. The politicians and their crooked constabulary are afraid that the citizenry might use it to clean out and flush them down the drain.
January 4th, 2012 at 2:24 pm
“Illinois lawmakers said Friday they agree that regulating drain cleaners and other products is needed to protect the public from those who may use them to harm.”
Aw man, even a PENCIL can do harm.
Stupid bunch of Illinois Capones.
January 4th, 2012 at 2:28 pm
This is just a first step towards banning drain cleaner, then you’ll have to a licensed plumber, make an appointment, and pay him to pour the drain cleaner for you. The ban will come when the ID requirement proves ineffective. It only took two incidents in Illinois/Obamaland for this to pass unanimously? The ban is on the way.
We need to change the mentality of a government that thinks that if something can be misused then it must be restricted and banned. That mentality has no respect for the value of freedom, and that has to change.
January 4th, 2012 at 3:51 pm
Paul, it’s going to be your fault when the Illinois PAUL (Pencils Are Utterly Lethal) bill outlaws all writing utensils.
January 4th, 2012 at 4:19 pm
I say we blockade and have economic sanctions against this rogue state.
January 4th, 2012 at 4:48 pm
@ Ellen,
If you have some way to extract Li from batteries, with anything short of a glove-box and 100% argon/helium environment, please let me know. You’d be a very rich woman.
January 4th, 2012 at 6:14 pm
Ellen:
An aquaintance of mine who worked at a pharmacy part-time informed me that according to Kentucky state law, they were REQUIRED to call the state police if anyone ever bought lithium batteries and pseudoephedrine in the same visit.
January 4th, 2012 at 6:56 pm
Why not just go straight to the heart of the matter and cut off everyone’s hands? Then we could bludgeon each other to death with our stumps, and then we’d be faced with laws regulating our arms. Then our legs and feet, then our heads…
January 4th, 2012 at 7:53 pm
I’m glad I don’t live in IL. Between the OTC meds for my allergies and making my own CP soap the jack boot thugs would be kicking in my door in no time.
January 4th, 2012 at 9:00 pm
I still do film photography and recently started mixing my own chemistry.
A number of items I use such as Sodium Hydroxide and Potassoium Permanganate are controlled by the DEA and I have to fill out a form declaring my use for them before I can purchase.
It is freaking ridiculous.
January 4th, 2012 at 11:07 pm
There must be a Plumbers Union, to be able to afford that much protection of their Guild.
January 5th, 2012 at 12:23 am
I love the bit in the article about plumbers not required to submit ID. I’m a chemist, where’s my exemption!
January 5th, 2012 at 4:41 am
Can’t have people breaking into other people’s homes and unclogging their drains.
January 5th, 2012 at 10:48 am
@Dustydog,
There is a plumbers union, indeed. Read this, regarding their battle against the evils of waterless urinals, it will make your brain hurt: http://reason.com/blog/2010/06/24/plumbers-unions-vs-waterless-u
January 5th, 2012 at 11:37 am
JDS at 4:48 –
I have no idea how to get the lithium out of a battery. But a fellow on a meth-house hazmat team gave our Sisters in Crime group a talk on meth-making, and lithium batteries were mentioned. Apparently farmers who use anhydrous ammonia fertilizer get it stolen for use in making meth.
But for some reason, he didn’t tell us how it was done.
January 5th, 2012 at 11:48 am
Ellen,
Interesting. I’m totally ignorant on what goes into meth, so perhaps the clever bastards have figured out a way to extract the Li without exposing it to air/moisture. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve worked with Li in the past, and it is nasty, nasty stuff. We had a new tech unknowingly open a container of it in a nitrogen environment, which is inert to just about everything (except Li, of course). Almost burned down the entire building. Exciting day.