The county I live in made the news again for something absurdly trashy: a group of women booed the special needs kids in the Christmas parade. The article doesn't explicitly state the political leanings of these women but it's exactly what you're thinking.
It makes sense to restrict access to pure, bulk pseudoephedrine. Like in the range of hundreds of kilos. But nobody making meth out of cold pills is going to be able to compete with cheap, surprisingly pure cartel meth. It's just not possible. And there's no reason for a person to take all the risks associated with running a clandestine lab to make it for themselves when they can just buy it.
So like, why bother restricting access to effective cold meds?
Its crazy that phenylephrine oral formulations stayed on the market for so long despite literally doing nothing. That's not an exaggeration, it gets broken down in the digestive system. None of it makes it to your blood stream. At all. Even at 4x times the normal max dose. Drug companies have known this for 30 years.
Actual, real, pseudoephedrine works great as a decongestant and they replaced it with a placebo because of fears of meth. But meth is cheap AF. Nobody needs to make it themselves!
Beloved Cat pontiff. Sassy but classy.