One of the most ridiculous things going on in California (if not other states) is the place we've reached when it comes to buying cold medicine. That is, I now officially feel like a criminal every time I try to purchase some...

The first ridiculously annoying experience I had was in the middle of a 12 hour drive when my nose got stuffy & I wanted to pick up a box of Alive Cold & Sinus. I went into a Longs Drug off the freeway (in an obviously unfamiliar area), and proceeded to ask if I could get some cold medicine. The answer, surprising to me at the time, was no. You see, the pharmacy was closed... So I essentially could not buy an OTC cold medicine because the pharmacy wasn't open... So much for OTC...

I ended up having to drive around to find a grocery store, and ended up going into a Vons. I found the cold medicine aisle, but instead of boxes of cold medicine they had little paper cut outs. Maybe the paper was meant to dissolve in water & then I drink it? At any rate, I took the cold medicine paper cutout to the checkout line. I then proceeded to block several people from checking out for around 10 minutes. They couldn't complete my transaction until I got the box, you see, as they needed the physical box to ring it up (and they had already rung up a few other things that I picked up). So finally they got me my cold medicine, and I officially felt like a criminal for trying to buy it, as I managed to piss several people off who were in line behind me...

Fast forward to today, when I needed to pick up another box, as both me & my wife have stuffy noses. I ended up going into a CVS Pharmacy & went to the pharmacy counter. That walk was a waste of time because they actually keep the medicine at the front counter. The irony here is that if you want to pick up a prescription & some cold medicine, you have to check out twice... So much for convenience... So at any rate, I went to the front counter & said I wanted a box of cold medicine, I realized at this point how lucky I was that I knew which one I wanted, because it's not really possible to read the boxes & compare when the boxes themselves are kept behind the counter, right next to the cigarettes... Only problem is, buying cold medicine is now worse than buying cigarettes. You see, once she grabbed the box she handed me a large note book. In that note book I was required to right down my name, address & contact information, along with MY SIGNATURE! So now I'm on file for life because I bought a box of cold medicine!!! Talk about big brother...

Of course now I'm stressing out wondering what in the world is going to become of my signature in that book. Am I going to end up in a federal database somewhere? Are they now going to put me on a watch list? If I apply for a job, will I be rejected based off of a purchase of cold medicine on the morning of March 14th, 2007???

What are we coming to? Is this criminal like treatment really doing a whole lot to curb the crime it's supposedly there to help enforce?

Whats next? Soon you will have to submit to a background check and a 10 day waiting period in order to buy a can of air freshener, as they will have to ensure you don't plan on using it for huffing...