Pubdate: Mon, 22 Apr 2002
Source: Times-News, The (ID)
Copyright: 2002 Magic Valley Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.magicvalley.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/595
Author: Shari Chaney
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

IODINE REGULATION MAY CUT METH PRODUCTION

RUPERT -- What's the difference between someone in a Ford pickup buying 
iodine and someone in a Nissan Sentra?

Chances are the person in the Nissan Sentra is buying the iodine to make 
methamphetamine, Minidoka County Prosecuting Attorney Rick Bollar says.

Minidoka County commissioners are considering an ordinance which would 
establish reporting requirements for the sale of iodine at a 7 percent or 
higher concentration. Bollar said the county currently requires iodine 
sales be reported, but there are no penalties for failing to report those 
sales.

County officials have used information about iodine buyers to conduct 
criminal checks on atypical buyers, Bollar said. There is a difference in a 
local farmer purchasing three ounces of iodine and an out-of- towner buying 
four gallons.

"It's the ones that don't make sense to us we're taking a look at," said 
Minidoka County Sheriff's Lt. Dan Kindig.

Southern Idaho, including Mini-Cassia, has experienced an influx of people 
from Utah coming to the area to purchase iodine in its higher 
concentrations, which can be used to make methamphetamine, Bollar said. 
Utah restricts the quantity of iodine people can buy, and meth 
manufacturers have to go somewhere else.

"We're just one of the stops along the way," Bollar said.

Bollar shared a story about some people from northern Utah who purchased 
large quantities of iodine in the morning then came back in the afternoon 
for more. Law enforcement personnel already had run a criminal check and 
knew the person driving the car had a suspended license. They found meth in 
his car, which he was reportedly delivering.

Kindig said the sheriff's office used information from an iodine sale to 
bust a meth lab in Utah a month ago.

The new reporting method will require new forms which ask for a little more 
information than is now required, Bollar said, but it should not be much 
more work than the current reporting system.

Law enforcement officials will visit businesses and pick up the information 
periodically. If officers don't come by and ask for it, the business owner 
does not have to take it anywhere. The information just needs to be 
recorded, Bollar said. Kindig said officials try to pick up the information 
about once a week.

The proposed ordinance would make it a misdemeanor for a vendor of iodine 
to not gather the information or not give the information to law 
enforcement agencies.

Wayne Smith, manager at Cenex in Rupert, said his store already operates a 
reporting program similar to what the county is proposing. Cenex does not 
sell iodine at the 7 percent or higher concentrations to people without 
proper identification. They must show a driver's license and have a valid 
address and phone number.

People from northern Utah came to buy iodine quite often for a while, Smith 
said. The people from the area knew they would be reported. Less such 
activity has been happening lately.

"We know pretty much who's buying it and using it legitimately," Smith said.

If a "whacked-out" guy comes in asking for gallons of iodine, Smith said, 
it's a pretty sure bet he's not using it for agricultural purposes.

Jeff Heins, a veterinarian at the Rupert Animal Clinic, said he typically 
sells the iodine in question in a pint quantity, not gallon. He said it is 
mostly used for treating the navel of a newborn horse or calf and "a little 
bit goes a long ways."

Regular Cenex customers understand the situation and aren't bothered when 
asked to show identification, Smith said. There have been occasions of 
non-regular customers being delayed, while officials check their 
information. Some have become irritated and left without making a purchase. 
But Smith said he wasn't too concerned about those customers becoming 
irritated if he keeps a meth ingredient out of the hands of a drug maker.

Letters had been sent to businesses which would be affected by the 
ordinance, Bollar said. He listed the C-A-L Ranch stores, Cenex, S and M 
Iodine and two animal hospitals in the area. No responses have been 
received, either positive or negative, he added.

Smith acknowledged he had received the letter, and Dorothy, a manager at 
the C-A-L Ranch store in Burley who refused to give her last name, said she 
had received notice about the proposed ordinance. However, she would not 
talk about the ordinance or iodine sales in general.

"I don't want to comment," she said.
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