Pubdate: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 Source: Evansville Courier & Press (IN) Copyright: 2005 The Evansville Courier Company Contact: http://www.courierpress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/138 Author: Bryan Corbin, Courier & Press staff writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) IT'S EASY TO GET AROUND NEW METH LAW Joint Investigation Finds Cold Remedies Available First Of A Two-Part Series Indiana's new methamphetamine law, which took effect July 1, affects everyone who purchases cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine. The cold remedy is a key ingredient in the production of methamphetamine, that insidious homemade concoction that has created a drug-abuse pandemic. The law's intent was to limit purchases by placing the medication behind the pharmacy counter. But in the process, law-abiding citizens have given up their right to privacy, having to sign logs and provide their identification to buy Sudafed or similar cold remedies. Some customers might not mind, as long as the law is working. But is it? A hidden-camera investigation by the Evansville Courier & Press and WEHT-News25 found the new law is easily circumvented. Over three days in October, a volunteer repeatedly visited pharmacies in Evansville and was able to purchase 19 boxes of pseudoephedrine, which amounts to 528 pills of 30 mg Sudafed. That would be enough to make the equivalent of more than two batches of meth. All the pharmacies followed the law, asked for the volunteer's identification and made her sign a log. During follow-up visits to a CVS and a Walgreen store, employees refused to sell her Sudafed after seeing her name in the log. At the West Side Wal-Mart, an electronic log caught the volunteer's prior visit and blocked her from buying more of the cold pills. No individual store sold her more Sudafed than the law allows. But because the pharmacies use paper records and aren't networked, they can't prevent someone from exceeding the limit by shopping at multiple stores. The state of Indiana does not yet have a central database of the transactions. "With the paper logs, there's not that ability to do that," Walgreen spokeswoman Carol Hively said. "Obviously, we can't prevent 100 percent someone who is bound and determined to do it and to invest a significant amount of time," CVS spokesman Mike DeAngelis said. Violating the new law by buying more than three grams of pseudoephedrine in seven days is a crime, a Class C misdemeanor. No one from law enforcement contacted the volunteer about the purchases, however, even though she bought many of the cold pills in the same geographic areas. Police say they check the logs to see if anyone is violating the law and use that to build cases against meth-makers; but to date, no one in Vanderburgh County has been arrested for violating the new law. Supporters of the law point to the declining number of meth labs dismantled in Vanderburgh County (39 this year, compared to 69 for all of last year) and say the law is having some effect in reducing meth production and meth use. "The fact that it is not preventing 100 percent does not mean it is not successful," Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Stan Levco said. "I don't think anyone who was in support of this law was naive enough to think (circumventing of the law) wasn't happening quite frequently." A state lawmaker who supported the restrictions, Rep. Trent Van Haaften, noted that addiction to methamphetamine causes people to have a heightened level of paranoia. "If a meth person has to go through the hoops of presenting ID and all of that, they're not going to bother," said Van Haaften, D-Mount Vernon. But individual stores' compliance with the law varies, according to Indiana State Police spokesman Sgt. Todd Ringle. "What we're finding is a lot of stores out there are not doing what they are required to do," Ringle said. "When we confront these stores, they're not familiar with the law and don't understand quite what they're supposed to be doing." A narcotics detective, Sgt. Mike Lauderdale of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Drug Task Force, said investigators visit pharmacies several times a month to check log books for names of frequent Sudafed purchasers. "We can see over a period of time, over the logs we have reviewed, that there are individuals who have one severe head cold month after month after month," Lauderdale quipped. Lauderdale said detectives are seeking to charge one suspect with violating the new state limit, the first such case in Vanderburgh County. Rather than citing purchasers with a misdemeanor, police said they primarily use the logs to start investigations against people making meth with the pills. Manufacturing meth is a felony. An illegal stimulant that is smoked or injected, methamphetamine is brewed in crude home laboratories out of pseudoephedrine pills, lithium batteries and stolen anhydrous ammonia. Because of meth's devastating consequences - ruined health of addicts, neglect of their children, environmental cleanup of meth labs and costs of incarcerating offenders - Indiana tried to curb meth production. Using an Oklahoma law as its model, the Indiana General Assembly this spring passed a law to limit access to drugs containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, such as Sudafed and other cold remedies. (Illinois enacted a similar law last week.) A customer wanting to buy such cold pills in Indiana must show identification to the pharmacy employee, who records the name and address. The customer then signs the paper log. Stores must keep the logs for two years for police to review, Ringle said. Ringle and Levco emphasized it's ultimately the responsibility of police, not merchants, to check the records. Lauderdale added that Evansville detectives have a good working relationship with drugstores, who call police to report drug-seeking customers. The new law calls for Indiana State Police eventually to create an electronic database, so that investigators and retailers can identify excessive pseudoephedrine purchasers. State police are seeking funding for such a database, Ringle said, but its implementation is years away. The paper log system worked twice on Oct. 14. A volunteer sent by the Courier & Press, Shannon Dilbeck, joined by WEHT-News25 photographer Neil Kellen, visited the CVS at 101 N. Burkhardt Road and the Walgreen at 2015 E. Covert Ave. Because Dilbeck had signed the log on her previous visits during the experiment, employees recognized her name and wouldn't let her buy more, she said. Some stores informally share information about problem customers. At three CVS stores, Dilbeck saw a fax in a log book labeled the "Sudafed Watch List," she said. Some chains have internal sales policies more restrictive than state law. An electronic log thwarted the sale of Sudafed during Dilbeck's second visit to the West Side Wal-Mart, 335 S. Red Bank Road, on Oct. 12. A pharmacy technician told Dilbeck that the store's computer had rejected her name, because of her previous purchase there two days earlier, Dilbeck said. Yet on a subsequent visit Oct 14 to the East Side Wal-Mart, 401 N. Burkhardt Road, Dilbeck was allowed to purchase more Sudafed, no questions asked. Wal-Mart company spokesman Marty Heires acknowledged the electronic databases of individual stores are not networked to those of other Wal-Mart stores. "In places where we are required to handle transactions electronically, that pertains only to that particular store," Heires said. "Until we get a statewide database in place, it is very difficult to prevent something like that." Van Haaften was not surprised that the hidden-camera investigation showed the law was easy to circumvent. "When creating the legislation, we realized what could happen," Van Haaften said. "We could have waited a few more years in hopes of getting a 90 percent reduction (in meth produced), or done something now and gotten a 50 percent reduction." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman