Pubdate: Mon, 14 Aug 2006
Source: Pantagraph, The  (IL)
Copyright: 2006 The Pantagraph
Contact:  http://www.pantagraph.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/643
Author: Matt Adrian
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

STATE OFFICIALS WANT TO TIGHTEN ANTI-METH LAWS

SPRINGFIELD -- State law enforcement officials want to improve 
logbooks used to track cold medicine sales that could be connected to 
methamphetamine.

While a new law appears to have made it more difficult for meth cooks 
to make the drug and slowed the flow of addicts coming to Illinois 
from border states, Attorney General Lisa Madigana€TMs office is 
looking to tweak the system.

"Wea€TMre making steady progress on a number of fronts," said Cara 
Smith, the attorney generala€TMs policy director.

Since mid-January, when the law went into effect, drugs containing 
pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in methamphetamine, have been 
kept behind store counters or doled out by pharmacists. People buying 
these types of medications must also show photo identification and 
sign a logbook.

However, the logs cana€TMt be searched in real time and there is no 
standard for how the records must be kept.

"Sometimes the pharmacist would write out the information, which was 
really helpful because it was normally legible and kept in a 
consistent way," Smith said. "Other times, they would just turn the 
sheet over to the customer and have the customer scrawl it in and you 
couldna€TMt read the stuff."

To avoid detection and circumvent restrictions, meth makers often 
travel long distances to obtain the needed ingredients.

Creating an electronic database could make it easier for law 
enforcement to build cases and track pseudoephedrine sales as they occur.

Oklahoma has a tracking system that went online in August and 
Illinois officials are planning a visit that state to see how the system works.

Smith said a working group of law enforcement and retailers are 
considering two types of tracking systems. One would alert store 
clerks and pharmacists when a purchaser had reached the monthly limit 
of pseudoephedrine-based drugs. The other type simply records the 
sale so police can use the information to build cases.

State Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, who has pushed several key pieces 
of legislation on methamphetamine, said he is leery of a database.

"If youa€TMre not a meth addict why should you have your name in a 
database," Rose said. "The vast majority of people that buy Sudafed 
are not meth addicts. I dona€TMt like the idea of the government 
tracking my every move."

The new law has made Illinois less attractive to out-of-state meth 
cooks, who were trying to avoid heavy restrictions in their home 
states, Smith said.

"Wea€TMre not seeing meth cooks come from other states because a€| 
you have no better chance of getting your Sudafed here than you do in 
the state you are coming from," she said.

Difficulty getting ingredients for making meth also has led to 
smaller batches of the drug being seized, Smith said.

"The cooks cana€TMt get large quantities to make big batches like 
they could when the key ingredients were unrestricted," she said.

However, compliance with the law by retailers remains an issue.

In May, the state did a random compliance check of 462 stores, 346 of 
which sold products containing pseudoephedrine. The number included 
271 pharmacies and 75 convenience stores.

The check found pharmacists tended to be in compliance, while 
convenience stores fell far behind. Overall, only 9 of the 75 
convenience stores checked followed state law.

Cook County scored a 49 percent compliance rate, the lowest in the state.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman