I'd often seen these bottles lining plastic cases on the counter of finer truck stops across the big old nation to the south. When I finally peered at the fine print, I wondered, Are there really that many asthmatics driving rigs?

Well, not exactly. You see, one of the side effects of these little bronchodilators is that they do not cause drowsiness. That is, of course, a subtle euphemism. The main ingredient here is ephedrine, a substance made illegal in Canada and in many US states several years ago, despite its effectiveness in dilating those old bronchial passages. Nowadays, pills like Advil 'Cold and Sinus' contain pseudo-ephedrine. Seems that people were buying up ephedrine to do a little home cooking (it's one of the main ingredients in many forms of street methamphetamines).