Friday, January 04, 2013

DEA? FDA? WTF?

     So...a grocery-store security worker got punched in the gut last night by a man allegedly (hem!) shoplifting Enfamil baby formula.  The suspect got clean away, too.  Security has to follow possible shoplifters outside or it's not quite stealing -- and this suspect had a van handy.

     Baby formula?  What, he's Jean Valjean?

     Mebbe.  Maybe not: grocers in some locations keep that stuff locked up, as it s widely stolen...and used to cut cocaine.  Or so it says on the Internet and it's plausible enough...and then there's commenter who claims to have been asked to show ID when buying color-safe bleach!  (Ew.)

     There is a lesson here and it applies to more than drugs: makers and sellers of an illegal product need make no big effort at purity, strength or even safety.  What are customers going to do, sue?

     This lesson should have been learned during Prohibition.  It wasn't.  --And all of those people who would outlaw guns?  Rethink.  If possessing an "illegal" semiautomatic firearm carries the same penalty as possessing a fully-automatic version, what do you think will happen?

13 comments:

Carteach said...

In today's economy, there is every chance it was a man with a baby to feed. That stuff is expensive!

perlhaqr said...

Yeah. And given just how crude the Sten is...

Actually, I'm kind of surprised we don't already have black market Sten factories.

Tango Juliet said...

I have seen online instructions for building a fully functional, albeit very crude, subgun with simple handtools. Mags included.

The technology really isn't that exotic.

Ruth said...

The baby formula here has been locked in cabinets for a while. You have to find someone with a key if you want to buy any. Its even worse than trying to buy liquor, at least you can usually take that to the counter yourself with your ID...

Bubblehead Les. said...

Wife and I have been fighting a Cold, so yesterday, I went to the Drug Store to Restock the OTC Meds.

There's something wrong when you have to take a Notecard from the Rack, walk over to the Counter, show I.D. and sign into a Log Book that you're not a Bad Guy just to get some Snot-Drying Pills.

I've bought Guns with less Paperwork involved.

rickn8or said...

Thank you for reinforcing my reluctance to partake of Recreational Pharmaceuticals. (Never thought I'd be happy for those Damn Revenoors' oversight.)

Re: a semi-auto ban in the face of other failed prohibitions: But THIS time it will be successful!

Robert Fowler said...

I left the comment somewhere, that if Fineswine gets her way and AR's are put on the national registry, all of mine will be full-auto before the sun goes down.

Dave H said...

I wonder if baby formula is as flammable as non-dairy coffee creamer.

http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1900/fv01871.htm

Phssthpok said...

Full-auto?

I suspect a mass proliferation garage-shop suppressors would be more likely. You can't full-full auto an innocent 'deer rifle', and if laws are passed, TSHTF and it gets down to a shootin' revolution, I think suppressors would see more action than FA EBR's.

Old NFO said...

They DON'T think Roberta, you know that... sigh

eriko said...

Theft to baby formula has been going on for a while. Google it. Basically much like Tide it is sold to smaller corner retail markets at a steep discount.

markm said...

I'm thinking that an open-bolt full-auto weapon similar to the M3A1 "greasegun" would actually be cheaper to make than a decent pistol. Although for clandestine production, I think I would change the receiver design from stamped metal (requiring dies and a hydraulic press) to one milled from a block of steel.

Will Brown said...

Speaking purely from a basis of innocence (he said), the use of baby laxative to cut cocaine is what I think you're thinking of. Baby formula would have the opposite of the desired effect; the formula in the dope would clog up the other dope's sinus rather than be absorbed there-in.

As to the product purity disagreements, I have heard it said that more than one act of non-law enforcement violence has had it's inspiration in just that very complaint. Personally, I'll take the FDA's graft and stupidity for preference myself.