Sciencemadness Discussion Board

REJOICE? Texas' strict glassware regulations seem to have been loosened recently?

Cou - 6-11-2019 at 16:22

https://www.reddit.com/r/chemistry/comments/dew73u/texas_str...

https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB616/2019

sounds like they rightfully got complaints from homeschoolers and home brewers who were sick of filling out a form every time they needed to order one more item.

I am also no longer able to find the permit forms on DPS

The law was so stupid in the first place. I bet it went down like this:

*Legislator visiting a chemistry professor

Legislator: "Show me how meth is made."

Professor: sets up basic organic chemistry apparatus

Legislator: bans literally everything on the lab bench

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49AiqH-DuR0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GwjfUFyY6M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWsxSeqdyTw

Scraaeenshot_1.png - 57kB




[Edited on 7-11-2019 by Cou]

Steam - 6-11-2019 at 16:45

Nice! It certainly feels like times have changed over the past 7 years or so. It seems that the 'war on (Rational decision making?)' is winding down. Good for you Texas, still wouldn't bring my lab to that state though! :]

WGTR - 6-11-2019 at 16:53

Wow! Thanks for posting that. This is like Christmas in November. The problem that I always had was the DPS inspection requirement. I do my personal chemistry at work, not at home. Unfortunately I couldn't allow them into the lab to do an inspection, and I was too honest to use my home address. Hence you see the posts where I'm building condensers or jury-rigging things together with bent glass tubing and random bits of tape.

stephill92 - 6-11-2019 at 18:24

Wow I didn't even know about this regulation. I never had a problem ordering glassware but I guess I won't have to worry about it as much now. In fact I even had the fire department at my house when I had a couple of erlenmeyer flasks out in my kitchen and they didn't say anything!

Cou - 6-11-2019 at 18:39

as someone in Texas, here is fitting music to celebrate this occasion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49AiqH-DuR0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GwjfUFyY6M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWsxSeqdyTw

[Edited on 7-11-2019 by Cou]

arkoma - 7-11-2019 at 06:54

Glad I live across the line in Ark-In-Saw. Texas just sentenced my sister to two years state jail for possession of .01gm. Lovely place.

*edit* Don't get me wrong, not a Texas hater, I LOVE visiting NE Texas (Franklin County area), but ain't gonna live there.

[Edited on 11-7-2019 by arkoma]

Corrosive Joeseph - 7-11-2019 at 07:07

A hundreth of a gram.....?

:o


/CJ

karlos³ - 7-11-2019 at 07:25

Hey, ten milligrams are correspondng to three and a third pervitine pills.

arkoma - 7-11-2019 at 09:31

Quote: Originally posted by Corrosive Joeseph  
A hundreth of a gram.....?

:o


/CJ




YEAH, and probably mostly isopropylbenzylamine on top of that

*edit* used to buy her Marquis reagent for Xmas and birthdays LOL

*edit* and that was at a Jury trial, where they produced no phys evidence. "destroyed during testing"

[Edited on 11-7-2019 by arkoma]

[Edited on 11-7-2019 by arkoma]

Texium - 7-11-2019 at 11:03

This is very good news, indeed! My years of blatantly violating that permit requirement are finally over. It's honestly quite a relief, even though I never expected anything bad to happen.

Cou - 29-2-2020 at 18:16

Does anyone know what caused them to repeal? Any discussion in the legislature? I can't find details of what happened in the Texas 2019 congressional session.

I sent emails to my texas senator and representative a year or 2 before this. It would be cool if that caused it.

macckone - 4-3-2020 at 12:02

My bet is a legislators pyrex coffee pot broke and he went looking for another one (they don't sell them in texas).
Then he found out why they don't sell glass coffee pots anymore in texas.
And then you have the law change.

Something similar happened when a legislator's wife was hit by a car that was left running with kids in it. One of the kids hit the gear shift and ran over the legislator's wife (not fatally thankfully). They made it a crime to leave your keys in the car or leave your car running.

SWIM - 5-3-2020 at 11:21

Well this explains the 75% drop-off in my sales in Texas.
They don't have to buy out-of-state to avoid getting permits anymore.

That's actually kind of a relief.

I was beginning to wonder if the reduced sales were due to my overly frank product descriptions.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Kontes-19-22-joint-10-ml-class-A-mi...

thermochromic - 11-3-2020 at 14:40

From

https://www.dps.texas.gov/rsd/Precursor/index.htm
Quote:

Pursuant to Senate Bill 616 (86th Legislative Session), Texas Health and Safety Code (HSC) Chapter 481 has been amended to repeal the requirement of a DPS-issued permit for the sale, transfer, purchase or receipt of precursor chemicals or laboratory apparatus.

Effective September 1, 2019, the department will no longer issue permits to manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, or other persons who sell, transfer, or otherwise furnish chemical precursor or laboratory apparatus, to a commercial or laboratory apparatus purchaser, or to other persons who receive chemical precursor or laboratory apparatus.

Be advised that the provisions of HSC Chapter 481 relating to record keeping of sales, transfers, purchases or receipt of precursor chemicals and laboratory apparatus remain. In addition, the department will continue to have oversight over, and is authorized to continue to conduct inspections of, those who engage in transactions relating to chemical precursor or laboratory apparatus.

The administrative rules governing precursor chemicals and laboratory apparatus, Title 37, Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 13, Subchapter B, are being amended to reflect these changes.


[Edited on 11-3-2020 by thermochromic]

Cou - 11-3-2020 at 14:51

It would be cool if this is because of the emails I sent to my texas legislators, but we'll never know.

[Edited on 11-3-2020 by Cou]

Bmoore55 - 12-3-2020 at 08:07

This news makes me very happy. I love the fact that Texas is doing away with a lot of regulations.

DrIronic101 - 7-4-2020 at 12:34

Thank God this is getting repealed. Requiring a permit for a damn Erlenmeyer was dumb as hell.

Cou - 7-4-2020 at 16:55

It already is repealed.

symboom - 7-4-2020 at 17:23

Iwo see if it was because it was getting in the way of businesses

Cou - 7-4-2020 at 20:24

I don't know if there is a way to see transcripts of videos of the Texas congressional meetings that led to this repeal

Texium - 8-4-2020 at 07:58

Quote: Originally posted by Cou  
Does anyone know what caused them to repeal? Any discussion in the legislature? I can't find details of what happened in the Texas 2019 congressional session.

I sent emails to my texas senator and representative a year or 2 before this. It would be cool if that caused it.

Highly doubtful that it had any effect. They don’t keep a transcript of the legislature’s discussion, but they do have records of the votes. The bill passed both the house and senate unanimously, so in all likelihood, there was no discussion. The glassware law repeal was only a blip in the bill at large. Look at the list of subjects: https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/SB616/2019 They range from firefighters and police, to recreational vehicles, to funding for Texas A&M’s engineering program.

Also, none of the bill’s sponsors are your representatives (Not that I know exactly where you live, but none of the sponsors of the bill represent any part of the metroplex).

Regardless, I’m glad that it got repealed.

DReed123 - 7-9-2020 at 20:38

Thank God. I'm a texas resident. Prior to the repeal purchase of an erlenymeyer flask in texas without a permit was a felony (class state jail) punishable by up to two years in prison. Whatsmore, if you used it at home, you surrendered your rights against unreasonable search by agreeing that any state official could search where the glassware was located for any reason at all, at any time, and without a warrant.


EDIT-- The freedom to search the premises housing controlled laboratory apparatus appear to still be in effect.

https://www.dps.texas.gov/RSD/Precursor/News/index.htm

[Edited on 8-9-2020 by DReed123]

macckone - 8-9-2020 at 09:52

Repeal basically resulted from a legislator being unable to replace a broken coffee pot.
When I moved out of texas, you literally could not get a borosilicate coffee pot.
It even impacted the coffee pot market in other states.