Another Reason To Sink Real ID

A Department of Homeland Security official thinks we should be required to present federally approved identification when buying prescription drugs:

In a presentation aimed at promoting the final identification requirements released Friday, Stewart Baker, the Homeland Security Department’s assistant secretary for policy, suggested the controversial system could help federal agents combat methamphetamine production and abuse in the United States.

Baker cited a 2005 federal law, which requires pharmacies to keep tabs on how often people buy certain drugs, such as cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, that can be used to concoct the drug. The key to that process, naturally, is verifying the customer’s identity through some sort of document.

“If you have a good ID…it would make it much harder for meth labs to function in this country,” Baker said in a morning presentation here at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that supports Real ID.

Meaning that REAL ID has gone from a weapon in the War on Terror to a weapon in the War on (some) Drugs, not that any of us should be surprised about it.

Nor should we be surprised about this:

Echoing earlier remarks, Baker said he doesn’t “understand” the civil liberties objections to the plan. “I would welcome hearing from the ACLU or other civil libertarians why they think that improving the security of drivers’ licenses that people already have, making sure the data we already provide to the DMVs is kept more secure, why that’s a bad thing for civil liberties,” he said.

Mr. Baker, there’s failure to understand and there’s willful ignorance. I think you’re suffering from the later.

H/T: Cato@Liberty