The year’s most stupid legislator

I had to check the date of this article three times to be sure it wasn’t April 1.

JEFFERSON CITY Ö First, the state said you must make a special trip to the pharmacy counter to buy certain cold medicines. That was to curb production of methamphetamine.
Now, a St. Louis legislator wants you to do the same thing to buy an even more common household item Ö baking soda Ö because it’s used to make crack cocaine.
Sales of cold medications containing pseudoephedrine, such as Sudafed, are strictly regulated in Missouri. Customers must show a photo ID when they buy the medicine. Pharmacists must log the names and addresses of buyers, including how much they buy. People under 18 may not buy the medicines.
The sponsor of the baking soda bill, Rep. Talibdin El-Amin, D-St. Louis, said the same approach was needed for baking soda because crack cocaine is often produced by dissolving powdered cocaine in a mixture of water and baking soda.

Baking soda.
That’s what happens. You let these idiot legislators start making one thing illegal because it’s connected to something else, and the next thing you know, everything is illegal.
Even the DEA’s Tom Murphy thinks that this is unworkable.

“When you generate a list of people who use baking soda, it pretty much includes everyone. It’s a common household item,” said Tom Murphy, a special agent with the St. Louis division of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The baking soda bill is HB1189. Representative Talibdin El-Amin represents District 57.
If only we could outlaw legislators. They do more harm to this country than criminals, drugs, guns, locusts, asbestos, and trans-fat combined.

Update: Winning comment from Hit and Run regarding this story:

If baking is outlawed, only outlaws will be baked.