Fighting meth

by Brian Rosenthal
Pharos-Tribune staff writer

July 03, 2008 03:14 pm

— It’s called “smurfing,” and it’s causing police to rely on local pharmacies to fight one of the most dangerous drugs ever to strike the country.
An Indiana law celebrating its third anniversary this week has given law enforcement agencies another tool to combat “smurfers,” people buying cold medicine to use in the production of methamphetamine.
Senate Bill 444, which took effect three years ago Tuesday, requires purchasers of cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in meth, to sign a log in the pharmacy. It also limited the amount a person can buy in a seven-day period to three grams of pseudoephedrine. Law enforcement agencies routinely check the log to see if any individuals are buying a large amount.
If they are, they can count on a visit from police, said Cass County Prosecutor Kevin Enyeart.
“It’s not illegal to buy cold medicine,” Enyeart said. “But it’s illegal to have evil intent. If we see their name repeatedly in the logs, they’re probably up to no good.”
The sign-in log is behind the counter at the pharmacy, he said. Instead of leaving the drugs on the shelves, cards representing each product are left out to be exchanged for the drugs at the counter. Most pharmacies have electronic log systems, while some have paper ones.
Nobody can be arrested for meth production off the log alone, Enyeart said. But once police see a name repeatedly, they can set up surveillance or a sting operation.
The law has had led to a sizeable decrease in the number of meth labs in the county and state, said deputy prosecutor James Ackermann. Cass County averages about 10 lab seizures a year, according to numbers provided by the Indiana State Police.
But the numbers might indicate that meth makers are finding a way around the law.
While the number of drug labs seized by Indiana police decreased from 992 in 2005 to 766 in 2006, that number increased to 820 in 2007, and is on pace to eclipse 1,000 this year.
After a dramatic increase when the law passed, the recent increase is due partly to better police work, but mostly to meth makers finding a way around the law, said Matt Bilkey, the commander of the six-county Peru district of the Indiana State Police.
“Instead of buying 20 boxes at one store, now they go and buy two boxes at 10 different stores,” said Bilkey, who was promoted to district commander last month. “It’s still illegal, but the chances of being caught are slim to none.”
A trend prevalent in Cass is an increase in the amount of finished meth being imported to Indiana, rather than produced in the state, prosecutors say. That shift is still important, they pointed out, because homemade meth labs are explosive and a high risk to the community.

A flawed law
Police know they could be catching more criminals but say they simply don’t have enough time to get to all the cases.
Trooper Bob Burgess, a member of the state police meth suppression unit, says the way the system works has limited him to about five meth arrests a month from the logs.
Some updates in the law might make his job easier.
One area for potential improvement is the lack of statewide electronic database combining the logs at different pharmacies, said Burgess, who said the system could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“We’re trying to secure funding and get a program so the information would go into a central database,” he said. “We would no longer have to drive from store to store to store to check the logs. We could basically just get on the computer.”
Another problem is the small penalty for exceeding the limit of pseudoephedrine purchase in one week, Burgess said.
Currently, the violation is a class C misdemeanor, carrying a maximum penalty of 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. A second offense is a class A misdemeanor, with a maximum punishment of a year in prison and a $5,000 fine.
The law would be better enforced if it “had more teeth in it,” Burgess said.
“That’s a lot of time and effort for a first time offense on a class C misdemeanor,” he said. “If the second offense was a felony, you’d feel like you were accomplishing something.”
Police and prosecutors say they are aware of the hassle the log system is causing regular citizens who just want to buy cold medicine.
“I recognize that we are inconviencing people at some times with this restriction,” Bilkey said. “But we have to balance the public’s right to a legitimate product with this horrible drug and people that are perverting the use of an over-the-counter cold medicine.”
The three gram limit, enough for two boxes of cold pills, should be plenty to get a sick person through the week, Bilkey pointed out. If it’s a chronic problem, the customer can get a prescription.    
Buyers understand the reason for the law, said Christi Gallagher, a senior communications manager at Wal-Mart.
“The customers appreciate the fact that the laws are there to protect them,” she said. “They understand that it’s important.”
Despite its imperfections, the law is already a good first step for law enforcement bent on cracking down on “smurfing,” police said.
“It’s a good law,” Burgess said. “It’s a step in the right direction.”
The extra effort to stop “smurfers” is being put in because of the special threat meth poses, Enyeart said.
“There’s not anything worse in terms of drugs in my opinion,” he said. “It wrecks people’s lives. It’s a scourge to society.”
Brian Rosenthal can be reached at (574) 732-5148, or via e-mail at Brian.Rosenthal@pharostribune.com

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