Vietnam halts importation of pseudoephedrine Thanh Nien News
5. PERSONAL NOTE
FROM THE OADEC PRESIDENT
March 6, 2010
The other day I finished yet another
presentation about meth and pseudoephedrine control, when a student
asked me a simple question: What got me started - why so much passion
about this issue? It was not the first time I've been asked that
question. The answer is always the same, as it is for many of my
colleagues: Lots of reasons, some family and personal, but number one is drug endangered children.
You see, in 1976, we let a Genie out of a
bottle. We moved pseudoephedrine from a prescription drug to
over-the-counter. Ever since, we've been putting
band-aids on the situation, while meth labs blow up and catch
fire, lives and families are destroyed, neighborhoods devastated, our
environment poisoned and, most tragically, drug endangered children
suffer, or worse. Yes, I realize it is a sacrifice to return
pseudoephedrine to a prescriptionmore band-aids, and put the Genie back in the bottle.
During my drive home from the presentation, I
thought of how best to explain the passion that many of us feel about this issue. Then I remembered a poem written
by a friend and colleague, Ron Mullins, a retired career law enforcement
officer and the first National DEC Training
Coordinator.
Ron read the poem at the
closing of the Inaugural National DEC Conference held in June of 2004.
The poem was written in memory of Bobby, a severely neglected young boy
who was found and removed from a meth lab home in New Mexico by Ron's
team. Despite valiant efforts by hospital staff, Bobby died from
severe neglect not long after being rescued. With Ron's
permission, I posted the poem on this website many years ago when Oregon
was still having around 500 meth lab incidents a year. I
removed it when Oregon got rid of most of its meth labs.
However, I decided to repost
it here, in order to help others understand why so many of us from around our nation are so passionate about this issue:
"Angels
In Black" by Ron Mullins
By the way, the photos in the
poem are from Colorado, where they became a well-recognized symbol of
DEC in the Colorado media.
Rob Bovett
President
Oregon Alliance for Drug Endangered Children
Perseverate in pugna !
Illegitimi non carborundum !
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One-hundred years from now
it will not matter what your bank account was,
the sort of house you lived in, or the kind of car you drove.
But the world may be different because you were
important in the life of child. – Anonymous
LATEST
NEWS, EDITORIALS, PAPERS, AND OP EDS:
2011:
2011: 
2011: 
2011: 
Mexico has banned pseudoephedrine entirely
New Zealand has made pseudoephedrine a prescription drug
Australia is considering making
pseudoephedrine a prescription drug
Vietnam has banned the importation of pseudoephedrine