The Real Breaking Bad: How the Drug War Creates Collateral Damage
88-year-old Bob Wallace, and his 85-year-old girlfriend, Marjorie Ottenberg fell in love 35 years ago backpacking to the tops of the highest peaks in the world. Wallace is a Stanford educated engineer and Ottenberg is a former chemist and decades ago they came up with a water purification product for backpackers like themselves called Polar Pure out of their garage in Saratoga, Calif. "For an old guy with nothing else to do, this is something that keeps us occupied," says Wallace. Today, Wallace and Ottenberg are fighting the Drug Enforcement Administration and state officials to continue to operate their business. Why? The DEA says that drug dealers are using their product to make methamphetamine. The DEA says meth heads are interested in Polar Pure's key ingredient, iodine crystals. In 2007 the DEA reclassified iodine as a controlled substance and named Polar Pure in particular as a product that was of concern to the DEA. The DEA told Wallace and Ottenberg, they could continue to operate their business but they would have to pay a $1200 regulatory fee, register with the state and feds, report any suspicious activity and keep track of each and ever person who bought a bottle of their product. Bob says that the overhead alone would be too much to pass onto customers. "So that's why I didn't bother with their rules, because I would be out of business if I followed their regulations," says Wallace. The same went for camping stores and online outlets that stocked Polar Pure <b>...</b>
Drug War Methamphetamine Bob Wallace Marjorie Ottenberg DEA raid Breaking Bad Polar Pure iodine Controlled Substance LEAP crime police Stephen Downing Breaking Bad (TV Program) Cops libertarian Reason.com Reason.tv Reason.org Reason (magazine) Paul Detrick
