DALLAS -
State leaders in Oklahoma say methamphetamine was ripping the heart out of
their state a few years ago. It was costing billions in law enforcement,
prevention, and treatment, and was by some accounts, the biggest crime problem
in the state.
“For the last
10 years, here in Oklahoma, we have seen meth labs skyrocket; literally, a
12,000 percent increase,” said Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous
Drugs Control spokesman Mark Woodward. “We went from 10 labs in 1994 to more
than 1,200 labs in 2003.”
In 2002,
authorities seized almost 1,300 meth labs in Oklahoma.
Today, lab
seizures are down 70 percent, according to the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics
and Dangerous Drugs Control.
Last year, the
Oklahoma legislature enacted a bill that limits the sale of cold and allergy
medicine, pseudoephedrine, a key component in “cooking” the drug. The law
requires the ingredient to be sold behind the pharmacy counter and customers
have to show identification and are limited on the amount they are allowed to
buy.
Oklahoma's new
restrictions have been so successful that other states, as well as private
enterprise, are following suit.
“You can still
get it. You just need to show your ID and sign the log book first,” said
Woodward.
Scourge
across heartland
Meth, and its effect on users and innocent bystanders, is an exploding
epidemic in the nation’s heartland.
The Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) says methamphetamine is the number one drug
of choice in rural America. It can be made with simple materials; mason jars
and coffee filters, and is cheap to make.
With about $100
in materials, a maker can produce $1,000 worth of meth. In the last year,
police busted more than 9,300 meth labs nationally, nearly a 500 percent
increase from 1996, according to the DEA.
Oklahoma
setting national example
Oklahoma’s success in regulating the sale of pseudoephedrine has prompted
12 states —Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Kansas, Mississippi,
Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wyoming — to tackle the
nation’s growing meth problem by placing limits on the cold medicine. At least
twenty more states are considering similar measures.
Tennessee
authorities found almost 1,600 meth labs in the state last year. Rep. Charles
Curtiss sponsored a state bill that mimicked Oklahoma’s landmark legislation.
It passed in March.
“This problem
had reached epidemic levels and the majority of the meth labs discovered in
the southeastern United States were discovered in Tennessee,” said Curtiss.
“Other states are passing legislation in order to curb the growth of this
plague on society.”
Woodward
credits Oklahoma’s success for the other states’ action. “They’re saying, ‘We
need to do what Oklahoma is doing.’ We’ve had about 40 other states call us to
get copies of our bill to study it.”
Private
sector steps in
Now, several private companies are joining the fight against the drug.
The nation’s
two largest retailers, Target Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are in the
process of moving medicines containing pseudoephedrine from the aisle shelves
to behind the counter. Smaller pharmacies, including Albertson’s Inc., CVS
Corp., Rite Aid Corp., and California-based Longs Drug Stores Corp., are
quickly following suit.
Mark Peippo, a
Wal-Mart pharmacist in Sherman, Texas, near the Oklahoma border, says meth
“cooks” used to steal the cold-type medicines and walk it back across the
border. The store decided to voluntarily move the pseudoephedrine products
behind the counter about a year ago. “We’re not having nearly as much theft
as we were before,” said Peippo.
Another
pharmacist, who wished to remain anonymous, said the change has been a good
way to keep track of the buyers. “We knew we were having a problem with meth,
but there was no way to monitor it before we decided to move the drugs to
behind the counter.”
This week,
Oklahoma legislators took one more step in their crusade against
methamphetamine.
They passed a
new bill to make the pharmacist’s bookkeeping a little easier by creating an
online database. The system will help determine whether a customer has
exceeding his allotment of cold medicine by going from store to store to buy
more than the allowed amount.
"House Bill
1507 helps ensure that our state continues to see an erosion of meth abuse,"
Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry said.
MSNBC.com
