Hard to Believe it's happening in Texas!
i wanted to purchase an Erlenmeyer flask. actually, since i wanted a heavy-duty one, it's technically a filter flask. i wanted a 1 litre flask to use as a wine decanter. to go with the 250 ml beakers i already have to use for juice / wine glasses.
in fact someone has already commercialised my idea as
Periodic Tableware.
easy enough to order from lots of places ... Van Waters & Rogers, Amazon, etc.
but it turns out that here in my seemingly draconian law-free residence of Texas, they have a weird bone in their head that everyone who buys (or wants to buy) any laboratory equipment must necessarily be some kind of Breaking Bad methamphetamine producer. they have a "DPS Precursor Chemical Laboratory Apparatus (PCLA)
Program" set up that requires a potential purchaser of such equipment to obtain a permit from TxDPS.
i could just order one from Amazon or eBay. but what the heck ... let's see how difficult it is to buy just one, one-litre flask the "right way" (i said to myself).
so i filled out the (not particularly onerous) 3-page
form and submitted it.
included in the process was having someone from TxDPS come and "inspect my facility" to determine if my facility (home) is sufficiently secure to maintain such equipment. in fact, they sent 2 people to my apartment to inspect! and pretty much every item on their checklist for inspection was "not applicable".
My Tax Dollars At Work.
