What the hell is Smurfing? But don't bother me with it now, I have a cold.

From KELOland.com:

One frustrated South Dakota lawmaker isn't surprised by the “smurfing” incident in Sioux Falls. State senator Stanford Adelstien hopes to make South Dakota's current law on pseudoephedrine tougher.

Adelstein says cracking down on how often and how much pseudoephedrine people can buy could help with South Dakota's meth problem. He says results of a law passed in Oklahoma are proof.

and...

In addition to limiting the amount of drugs with pseudoephedrine a person can buy, Adelstein would also like the law to include tougher regulations, similar to what stores in Oklahoma follow.

Adelstein said, "That requires each person to take anything that has ephedrine in it to register, give their name, identification, and a number and some proof of their ID would be much more effective."

Read the entire story here.

Let's just start out by stating for the fact I'm against drugs. Probably more than many people. With that said, let me also state for the record "For crying out loud. Please stop Stan before he legislates again."

Do I seem a little exercised on this? I'm a chronic sinus sufferer. Year-round hay fever, sinus infections, etc. Don't even get me started on the cold and flu season. It sucks, and not just a little.

But it's not just because of that. I prefer my legislators conservative and working to make good law. Not barking like a seal for the media and saying there ought to be a law whenever a reporter comes calling on the topic du jour.

Now here's Senator Stan Adelstein, whom from prior posts on the abortion topic, I'm going to assume without confirmation opposes many of the stipulations that the State Task Force on Abortion wants to place on those seeking an abortion. Notification of risks, consultations, etc.

In other words, he strongly opposes Government placing stipulations on how a person decides to conduct their healthcare needs.

Yet here he is, barely a week or so after walking out of a task force meeting because of his opposition of state stipulations on women's healthcare, and he turns around and wants to make people purchasing medicines with pseudoephedrine in them (in effect) register the purchase with the state.

Stan (and J.P. Duniphan who is working with him on this legislation) says the grocer or pharmacist who sells these over the counter medicines should shoulder a burden because of someone else's criminal act. They say that law abiding citizens should shoulder the burden of jumping through a government hoop because of someone's criminal act.

God forbid he say we need additional funding of drug enforcement task forces and police to pursue the drug manufacturers. (I'd be all for that.) But, "No. "

I'm hoping that some of my nice legislator friends and acquaintances who read this will take this little lobbying effort on behalf of conservative sinus sufferers to heart. And keep in mind that most Republicans hold the belief that we're supposed to be the party of less government.

Ronald Reagan said it best when he quipped "Government is not the solution. It's the problem."

And I won't be so cranky once I take my Day-quil.