[SEL] It works? Ban it! - Attention Brent

[johnculp at chartertn.net]

---- Elden DuRand <edurand at mchsi.com> wrote: 
> John:
> 
> I bought a couple of cans of Red Devil Lye just a couple of years ago.  Found it in the drain cleaning section at one store and the detergent/soap section at another.
> 
> You COULD do it the old fashioned way and simply slowly pour water over wood ashes.  What results is what they used to make soap in the "good old days".
> 
> "sodium hydroxide" (lye) should be commonly available at chemical supply houses.

Yeah. What came out of the wood ashes in a pot is potash, aptly named. Highly variable in composition, it made soap of highly variable quality, and of soft and gooey texture. "The old soft soap." 

Chemical supply houses tend to be suspicious of new buyers these days. Buying lye in quantity tends to put one on watch lists for meth makers. I think pressure from law enforcement agencies against groceries carrying Red Devil Lye pushed it out of business. I've found it impossible to buy concentrated ammonia locally for some time on account of the same reason. 

Several years ago I ran across a law enforcement document online, not intended to be public, explaining the technique to be used of going to store managers, flashing the badge, and explaining that customers looking for these substances were likely to be manufacturing illegal drugs. If they were not known to the manager, he should act as though he did not have the stuff, get as good a description of the attempted buyer and his vehicle as possible, and call the cops. That happened to me when I went to a janitorial supply house looking for strong ammonia! Store manager must've just been visited by the cops. He looked like he'd just seen a ghost. Looked me up and down trying to memorize my description as he stammered that they didn't have any and didn't know where I could get any, then peeked out the blinds to try to see my car and license plate. Must've thought I was a big meth kingpin for sure. Wal-Mart set off an alarm when Jane unknowingly bought more cold medicine with pseudephedrine than they unofficially allowed, before there were any legal restrictions, and there were no notices posted. They did the same with paint thinner and denatured alcohol. 

The whole idea of prior restraint, restricting honest citizens' access to legal things with normal legitimate uses because they COULD be misused, is wrong IMO. Same idea as gun control, no difference. I'm tired of hearing "If it saves just one child, it's worth it!" Meanwhile, I can't blame the chemical dealers for being scared. A dealer in Chattanooga got a 15 year prison sentence last year. Said he should've known anybody buying a bunch of elemental iodine was probably making meth. Bull! I can't buy the idea that a chemical dealer is a mindreader who knows what somebody's going to do with the stuff he sells, or that iodine automatically means somebody's making meth. I well recall acquiring several pounds of it myself in my younger days. Most of it went up in pretty purple smoke bombs, actually. But that poor guy's sitting in federal prison, his life ruined. This is just another small example of how the war on drugs is ruining our society. Not drugs themselves; the war on drugs. That's what's made the drug problem. The more we fight it, the worse we make it.