Pubdate: Mon, 01 Aug 2005
Source: Enid News & Eagle (OK)
Copyright: Enid News & Eagle 2005
Contact:  http://www.enidnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2012
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

WALGREEN SETTLEMENT ILLUSTRATES TOUGH METH LAWS MUST BE FOLLOWED

The $1.3 million settlement between various law enforcement agencies and 
Walgreen Co. looks to us to be a good way to bring this issue to a close.

The settlement between Walgreen and investigators closes the case on 
possible violations by Walgreens pharmacies of a state law restricting 
sales of over-the-counter cold pills containing pseudoephedrine, which can 
be used to make methamphetamine.

Enid Police Department and Garfield County District Attorney's Office are 
two beneficiaries of the settlement. They will split $333,333. Walgreen 
will pay the remainder to several agencies, also including Oklahoma Bureau 
of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control and U.S. Attorneys for Northern, 
Eastern and Western districts of Oklahoma, as well as the Eastern District 
of Texas.

State law requires pharmacies monitor sales of cold pills containing 
pseudoephedrine and limit the supply consumers may purchase to 9 grams in 
30 days.

Problems were discovered after an EPD patrolman began using pharmacy 
logbooks for tracking cold pill sales while investigating methamphetamine 
producers.

After some of the cold medicine bearing the Walgreens label wound up in a 
meth lab busted in Enid, officials with Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and 
Dangerous Drugs said Enid's Walgreens pharmacy accounted for 97 percent of 
the city's illegal pseudoephedrine sales.

The settlement did not require Walgreen to acknowledge any wrongdoing.

Walgreen officials have said previously, however, they used improper 
information on pseudoephedrine restrictions to train employees on 
Oklahoma's law, which is one of the toughest in the country and has been 
used as a model for other states and the federal government.

In addition to the $1.3 million, Walgreen will spend another $1 million on 
a system to monitor purchases of the medicine.

The settlement shows Walgreen paid a steep price for failing to make sure 
its pharmacies were using correct information in their training.

It also sends a message to other businesses that compliance with state law 
will be enforced.

In short, the word is: Conduct business properly, or there will be 
consequences.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom