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What Illegal Substance Do You Crave?
The Federal Government has, for quite a long time, banned the sale or importation of a very wide range of products. Having never had access to those products, most Americans don’t know what they are missing. But they are a loss nevertheless.
I wrote this post to find out what I am missing. But I can start by sharing an example or two of what Americans lack, courtesy of a stupid federal bureaucracy:
Toothpaste. Yes, I wrote about this before. I now smuggle Sensodyne with Novamin into the US from the UK. My dentist “cleanings” are now perfunctory and painless; no plaque or tartar buildup or cavities since I started using this toothpaste with a good electric toothbrush. I am not alone. But, thanks to the FDA’s decision to treat toothpaste as a drug, innovation has been stifled. You cannot buy Sensodyne with Novamin in the United States. Thanks, Uncle Sam.
Indian/Pakistani Mangoes. These are a taste explosion. You can smell them from across the room… sweet, fragrant, complex.. just an amazing fruit. Sliced thin on salmon, or included with whipped cream in crepes, these mangoes are the most decadent fruits I have ever tasted. They are not, however, legal for import into the United States. The block is, I think, a legacy of the early 1930s-era regulations intended to protect American crops from foreign pests. It is the same reason why there are thousands of potato varieties for sale in Peru, but only a handful in the United States.
Mangoes, of course, seem unimportant in the grand scheme of things. But I think that toothpaste and mangoes are good examples of how Americans are denied, by virtue of silly and overbearing federal government – and not even as a result of the Obama years. Blackcurrants, for example, were banned and exterminated in the US in the early 20th century, and are only now starting to make a comeback.
Is there some foreign treat that I really should try next time I am overseas? Much more importantly: I am sure there must be some drugs available overseas that would be lifesavers to Americans… does anyone know about them?
Published in General
Not so fast, Tonto. You will find some hardware stores (Ace, for example) only sell “Phosphate-free TSP.” Not kidding. It’s like Domino’s selling “carbon-free” sugar. Also no joke.
You can have a two-pack (9 lbs) of the real stuff delivered to your door through Amazon Prime for about $30 (cheaper than you can get it at the hardware store). Should last you six months or more.
— whoa! Amazon is having a sale!! Get it for under $10/box.
I’ve missed some comments so I don’t know if anyone’s said Weed…so….Weed.
@umbrafractus beat you to it at Comment #61…
I don’t know if anybody mentioned this yet, but last time I went to Canada, I stocked up on AC&C. Acetaminophen with codeine, which they sell over the counter there.
It must be something about Canadians that they can handle that kind of freedom where here in the US we would lose our minds.
Bah! Fine! Heroin then…
I love that you just used Bah!
Weed is widely available in Colorado, for which we get no end of grief when traveling in the other
4948 states where it’s illegal… as if we’re all doped up all the time. Americans can’t handle freedom it seems.While you are all moaning about psychoactive glass or whatever it is, dihydrogen monoxide is killing hundreds of thousands.
Tbh, you’re really not missing much.
Spinach wine on pizza, Arahant? It will just get soggy.
A friend of mine made kohlrabi wine – well, all sorts of fruit and vegetable wines (rhubarb, pear, etc), and handed them out as Christmas gifts. We got the kohlrabi because my husband is a curious guy. I am usually curious, too, but in this case only curious enough to take one sip.
ROFLMAO
My uncle used to raise kohlrabi. He’d enter them in the county fair and as the only entrant, he took the blue ribbon every year.
If you won a blue ribbon — any blue ribbon — you got a free pass to next year’s fair.
Wise old bird, my uncle.
Yes. I add a bit of TSP to every dishwasher load as mentioned above, and the difference is night and day.
My extensive research (and by “extensive research” I mean “Googling like a mad wildebeest in order to win a Facebook debate one night” 8^) reveals that the phosphate ban in residential (but not commercial) dishwashing was a product of junk science, and is nowhere near as effective as its proponents claimed. (http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/jan/25/phosphate-bans-spotty-logic/ and http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2011/01/24/your-dishes-are-dirty-because-of-the-greens/)
Also, I found a table that listed the source of phosphate compounds in wastewater by percentage. If I remember right, it was:
Agricultural fertilizers: 45% — not banned
Manure: 45% — not banned (we’ll leave aside the practicality of such a ban for now)
Commercial dishwashing: 2.5% — not banned
Residential dishwashing: 1.5% — BANNED
If this were really a crisis, why start by banning a source that only contributes 1.5% of the total? I conclude, therefore, that it’s not a crisis, and that my sprinkle of TSP will not befoul my local waterways.
Great info! Thanks, Rapporteur. I can now expunge that last bit of niggling guilt about having clean dishes and clothes…
How about a nice whale steak? Or some whale sushi? I personally really, really want a narwhal tusk. How about a tusk from an animal harvested by the Inuit (it’s legal for them) or a tusk from an animal that died of old age?
Please?
A masterful article on the home dishwashing phosphate ban, and how it really didn’t help anything: http://www.weeklystandard.com/another-triumph-greens/article/536862
So long as this has turned into a thread on tsp, let me add that a strong solution of it will remove varnish, and probably a lot of other things, too. My dad and I used it to refinish the floor in my first apartment back in…well, a long time ago. But I remember, too, the sadness of visiting my great grandparents’ farm in Indiana and seeing soap suds floating down the creek we’d played in as children. Life is not so much a box of chocolates as a boomerang; whatever we put out comes back.
Good piece, thanks. I do wonder, though, how much of the problem is the new machines using smaller amounts of water, and cooler water. I’ve used dishwasher detergents without phosphates for years with no problem, but I have an older dishwasher. I know new clothes washing machines are problematic, too, and I hate that I can’t wash clothes with really hot water because my machine keeps mixing in cold water even when I set it for hot. There is probably a way to disable this “helpful feature,” but I haven’t figured it out yet.
Phenylpropanolamine. It was for many years the active decongestant agent in just about every over the counter allergy medicine. For many years before that, it was same, but by prescription. It was taken off the market in a classic case of junk science/fear of lawsuits and I haven’t found anything to substitute that works as well. Most of the medicines still available are now using sudafed in its place, but it never worked for me alone or in combo with anything else. Just before it went off market, I stockpiled a few bottles and use it sparingly, only when I’m truly miserable.
I spoke with the drug company that made it, Bristol Meyers Squibb, if I remember correctly, arguing junk science and they agreed. They also pointed out that once FDA “suggested” it was dangerous, keeping it on the market opened them wide up to liability. Seems to me that it could have just been put back on prescription status, but the liability issue would have remained. Damned lawyers! (Nothing personal meant against any of the–I’m sure–wonderful attorneys among my fellow Ricochetti.)
It is available through veterinarians to treat incontinence in dogs. I haven’t had the nerve to ask my vet for a prescription…besides, I don’t have a dog.
Or in other words, according to them, it’s better to die than live with some unpleasant side effects. Depending on the side effect, I might agree with that idea. But I think it’s something each individual should have the opportunity to decide for him/herself – not have the government decide for him.
Turn off the cold water faucet leading into the washing machine. It will take longer to fill, but the water will all be hot. You can always turn the cold back on once the machine fills so that it’s available for the rinse cycles.
Temporarily identity as a dog.
Hey, if @jasonrudert can be Jamal for six months …
I second this motion. It’s so dumb, if you are trying to fill a small tank on a mower or trimmer with one of the new gas cans it causes more spillage because it always burps right when you are nearing the top causing you to overfill.
My father tells a story about his grandfather, where in the 60’s they were going to discontinue saccarhine (Sweet & Low) because it causes cancer in lab rats, so his grandfather went out and bought what he figured was enough supply to keep him in sweetened coffee for the rest of his life. Apparently he didn’t use the powder packets, but little pills of saccarhine.
You’re right, except apparently (according to Drugs.com) in Brazil. I apologize. Hasty internet research, rabbit hole and the wrong thing. I lined out the erroneous material at the original comment and linked to this one.
It looks as though it’s available at Amazon Canada; 3 tubes for $65.31 CDN shipped to the USA.
Vegemite is available at Cost Plus World Market. Check here for availability near you: http://www.worldmarket.com/product/vegemite.do
My wife is Australian and loves that crap. I can’t stand it. But Cost Plus is cheaper than I’ve been able to find on Amazon.
Cost Plus also sells the best thing to come out of Australia: Tim Tams! (They should, since Arnott’s is owned by Campbell Soup.) They don’t call them Tim Tams, though. They call them “Arnott’s Biscuits,” which is stupid to me because no one in the US calls a cookie a “biscuit”. Whatever you call them, they’re the best cookie in the world. They come in many flavors now, but the dark chocolate is still my favorite.
Grab them while you can, because they tend to sell out:
http://www.worldmarket.com/search.do?query=arnott%27s
Admit: What you really want is a medium rare burger.
The whole comment was great, but really, the first line’s a winner by itself.
Visit Iceland.