Remember a couple of weeks back when I blogged about the epidemic of Internet predators that never existed? With the lessons of that hysteria freshly unlearned, a pair of Senators is looking to tee up the next "think of the children" bogeyman - flavored methamphetamine. No kidding:
Last week Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) reintroduced a bill aimed at combating a new drug menace that, as far as anyone can tell, does not actually exist: candy-flavored meth. The Saving Kids from Dangerous Drugs Act, a.k.a. 'the candy-flavored meth bill,' would automatically double penalties for anyone who 'manufactures, creates, distributes, or possesses with intent to distribute a controlled substance that is flavored, colored, packaged or otherwise altered in a way that is designed to make it more appealing to a person under 21 years of age, or who attempts or conspires to do so.'Oh, joy. Another draconian hammer wielded in the War on Drugs without a firm basis in reality.
Never mind that, finally, after years of sticking heads in the sand, the country seems to realize the error of the (largely unfounded) fear driven excessive sentences given to crack dealers.
Never mind that federal law already carries distinct offenses and sentencing enhancements for selling any drug to kids.
How about the fact that this seems to be very much a solution in search of a problem, according to Snopes. That's right - a underlying basis of a criminal law introduced in Congress has been debunked by an Internet urban myth debunker. Let's hear it for bipartisan idiocy.
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