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Selling legal products legally is a "crime" now?

By Scott Tibbs, January 30, 2014

We have seen many abuses in the "War on Drugs," and now we see a new one: It is now a "crime" to sell a legal product legally, even when the person selling that legal product in a legal way calls the police with concerns that people are using it to make methamphetamine and asks for suggestions on what to do about it. When the store was raided, the obviously guilty store employee went to the store to provide whatever assistance he could to law enforcement.

For more information, see here and here and here.

At issue is Polar Pure, a product used to purify water. A critical ingredient is iodine. The product itself is legal, and was being sold legally. The "crime" committed by store employees in selling Polar Pure is that this product can be used to make methamphetamine - a truly horrible and destructive drug.

So here is the issue. The store was selling a legal product, legally, and the government decided they committed a "crime" and went after them. You can be assured there is greed at work too, because the Obama regime also wants the store to hand over nearly $270,000. The "War on Drugs" is often used to line the pockets of government, after all.

This is ridiculous. If a product being sold is that bad, then ban it. Make it illegal to manufacture, transport, possess and sell the product. That makes far more sense than inventing "crimes" after the fact. By the way, ex post facto laws are illegal under the Constitution - the very same Constitution that Obama swore to uphold and protect.

For the Obama regime to decide that selling a legal product legally is a "crime" is a bridge too far. It opens the floodgates for criminal liability and putting even more non-violent people in our already overcrowded and overburdened prison system, plus making it much more difficult for these people to be productive members of society.

The Obama regime has shown some much-needed sanity in pushing for reform of mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug crimes, but they are still drug warriors at heart. If Obama is serious about containing the abuses of the "War on Drugs," dropping cases like this would be a good place to start.

See previous articles on this issue here and here and here and here and here and here.