Controlled substances??

I have a cold. No big deal, really, just something settled in my head and now I'm miserable. But I don't need a doctor -- not yet. I'll just take some over-the-counter stuff and keep up the Vitamin-C until I feel better.

Oh, but if you go to buy cold meds anytime soon -- don't forget a photo I.D.

HUH? Yep, in case you're like me and have been living in a fog for the past months -- you now need a photo I.D. to buy Sudafed and other similar medications. Apparently, some very enterprising people have figured out how to make meth amphetamines out of our once every-day, ordinary cold products.

This shows me three things:
1. I've been suffering from a tunnel vision of sorts lately -- not knowing or really caring what's going on around me;
2. The world is getting out-of-control-weird if people have to find such bizarre ways to get high and/or make money; AND
3. I really need to keep up-to-date for professional purposes.

Professionally, I like to write contemporary and often suspense. One of my next novels is a sequel to my Summer release, Secrets and Shadows. The new story is tentatively titled, Small Town Junk, and involves a gang of drug dealers in the mountain town of Castle's Grove, PA. (A fictional burg which only exists in my imagination.)

Now I'm wondering... well, maybe the dealers don't have to have big city connections to heroin, maybe I can just outfit them with a chem lab and a hot case of Sudafed Cold and Flu? Huh. This is definitely something I'll have to research.

But I admit -- I feel a little uneasy about the strange twists and turns our society is going through. As a mom, it worries me that drugs are such an 'easy' thing to get hold of these days. The new trends in getting high give me moments of real dread as I think about my own children being faced with these choices. And it kind of ticks me off that I have to show I.D. & sign something in order to buy cold medicine!

When did any of us old folks ever dream that our cold meds would be dubbed as controlled substances? It boggles the mind ... and sets the imagination on a new flight. But wherever this might lead any future stories, at least I know my romance H/h will have a happy ending. All I have to do is make sure I have the right villain for the piece.