The Sounding Board: What Southern Standard readers are saying online
Here was the question: In an effort to crack down on the production of meth, should state lawmakers require retail stores to limit the amount of sinus and cold medicine they can sell containing the pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient used to make meth?
• Yes, limit pseudoephedrine sales – 92%
• No, don’t limit sales – 8%
The Standard also encouraged readers to provide feedback in addition to casting their vote. Here are some of the responses:
Until lawmakers provide cheap or free rehab and counseling services, the meth problem won’t go away. If someone is choosing a drug over their children, do lawmakers think that more jail time scares them? Sometimes jail is a blessing to drug users because it provides shelter and forces them to quit the drug, something many of them want to do but cannot because of the addiction.
Dana Mullican
June Street
McMinnville
I think it’s pretty obvious when someone is buying the medicine for ailments, and when someone is buying it for less than lawful reasons. If someone is buying a cart full of Tylenol Cold, you can bet it’s not for a runny nose.
Joe Moffitt
Shangri La Lane
McMinnville
Drug courts address rehab and counseling services. Drug courts, fashioned on Rutherford County’s model, also limit fines. Warren County would do well to copy these courts. People who make money from addicts will oppose these courts. Let’s hope opposition does not come from our present court system, especially the probation area.
Flossie Keener
Sunset Point Road
McMinnville
In addition to the week’s main question, the Standard also put other topics of local interest online to gauge reader response:
Q: Who do you support in the presidential election? (70 total votes)
• George W. Bush – 60%
• John Kerry – 40%
Q: Are you for or against same-sex marriages? (77 total votes)
• Against it – 79%
• For it – 21%
Q: Do you think Craig Fults was given an appropriate jail sentence? A Murfreesboro judge recently ordered Fults to serve 45 years, at 100 percent time, for sexual encounters with a 16-year-old high school student. (29 total votes)
• 45-year sentence is appropriate – 66%
• 45-year sentence is too harsh – 34%
If you don’t have access to the Standard’s Web site, log on to www.southernstandard.com and fill out a simple registration form. Subscribers are given free access.