Nearly 10 months after a state law restricting the over-the-counter sale of medications using the drug pseudoephedrine went into effect, local and state narcotics agents say they are seeing a drop in methamphetamine activity.
The Mississippi Legislature in 2010 passed a bill placing pseudoephedrine on the state’s controlled substances list. The law went into effect on July 1.
Pseudoephedrine is an ingredient in many cold medications and the primary ingredient for making meth.
People now need a doctor’s prescription to buy medicine containing pseudoephedrine — a factor that led to some backlash last year before the law was passed. Opponents cited the inconvenience of needing a prescription to purchase what had been over-the-counter medication.
Law enforcement officials say the law is worth it, considering the reduction in meth cases.
“Meth activity has dropped off,” said Southwest Mississippi Narcotics Enforcement Unit commander Tim Vanderslice.
The drop is evident in SMNEU’s statistics.
From Oct. 1, 2009 to Sept. 30, 2010, its agents:
• Conducted 10 meth investigations and opened 10 cases.
• Made 13 meth-related arrests and seized six labs.
• Discovered one meth lab dump site and cleaned or mitigated six sites.
• Seized more than two pounds of meth and more than five pounds of precursors.
• Purchased less than an ounce of meth. The street value of the methamphetamine seized during the period was $95,140.
From Oct. 1, 2010, through March 24, after the law had been in effect, agents:
• Conducted three meth investigations and opened three cases.
• Made 20 meth-related arrests and seized two labs. Agents cleaned or mitigated one meth lab dump site.
• Seized more than an ounce of meth and more than five pounds of precursor ingredients. The street value of the meth seized was $3,457.
Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics Director Marshall Fisher said MBN agents made 50 meth arrests and seized 20 labs in Southwest Mississippi between July 1, 2009, and March 23, 2010 .
From July 1, 2010, when the law went into effect, through March 23, MBN agents made 15 arrests and seized eight labs in Southwest Mississippi.
“We are beginning to see some changes in meth activity,” Fisher said. “The law has made a difference.”
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But Fisher and Vanderslice said the new law has not stopped people from making meth.
One reason is because people can go to neighboring states and buy medications with pseudoephedrine without a rescription.
State laws in Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee allow people to buy over-the-counter drugs containing pseudoephedrine by presenting identification and signing a ledger. The sales are recorded electronically.
“People in this area are going to Kentwood (La.) and buying pseudoephedrine,” Vanderslice said. “In Brookhaven, they’re going to Vidalia (La.).”
Authorities said people are buying the drugs and making their meth on the trip home in “shake-and-bake” labs.
“They put all the ingredients in a bottle and shake them, let the gas vent out and dry it,” Vanderslice said.
“It takes 15 to 30 minutes and they’re ready to go,” he said. “They can make an ounce to 11/2 ounces of dope that sells for about $100 an ounce.
“If there’s a way to get the materials, they’re going to get it and they’re going to make the dope,” Vanderslice said.
Fisher recalled a case earlier this year while he was with MBN agents in another part of the state.
“We watched a man driving a car with a Mississippi tag go into a Walmart in Louisiana and buy pills,” he said. “On his way back out to his car, he began peeling the pills and threw the packages out the window. He got into Mississippi, and when agents stopped him, he was already cooking meth on the back seat of the car.”
Fisher said most of the people using shake-and-bake labs are cooking for their own use.
“Some are selling, but it’s a small percentage,” he said. “The people cooking the meth and using the shake-and-bake labs are addicts.”
The shake-and-bake labs create another, potentially serious problem.
Residue from meth labs — regardless of size — is toxic, hazardous waste and must be cleaned by trained, certified workers.
Because shake-and-bake labs are small, they are hard to find, Vanderslice said, adding, “People cook the meth and then throw the bottle out.”
Every two or three days, he said, SMNEU gets a call from either county or city road crews or people walking in the woods who have found the remains of a meth lab.
“County workers recently found the remains of a lab in an ice chest near lake Dixie Springs,” Vanderslice said. “Another was found under a bridge on Cole Thomas Road.”
He said people exposed to meth fumes are placed on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Exposure List for possible future medical problems that may come from inhaling the fumes.
Vanderslice said Louisiana and other states have a computerized program called Meth Check that provides a list of all people who buy pseudoephedrine. The list is available to all law enforcement agencies.
He said officers use the list to see if someone buys an unusually large amount of psuedoephedrine — a possible sign of meth activity.
“It’s the same with people buying large supplies of camp fuel and batteries (which also are used to make meth) ,” he said.
“It may be something innocent — they may just be going on a camping trip,” he said. “But you have to stay observant to see if the person makes any more large purchases.”
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Fisher said putting pseudoephedrine on prescription nationwide could heavily reduce meth lab activity, adding that Oregon was the first state to put pseudoephedrine on prescription.
“I want to eliminate labs,” Fisher said. “We could do it if other states would put pseudoephedrine as a controlled drug. A number of states are working that way.”
He said Wednesday that he testified at a hearing held by the Alabama State Senate’s Health Committee. Alabama is considering a bill to make pseudoephedrine a prescription drug.
Reducing the amount of labs will free up agents to concentrate on drug dealers and drug organizations, which are a serious concern.
“Prison is not a place for a drug addict,” Fisher said. “There’s no rehabilitation. You lock them up and all you do is harden them, and the cycle starts from there.”
He said, however, that he has no other solution to handling meth addicts.
Addicts, Fisher said, are not dealers, and they place a burden on the criminal justice system.
“There is the cost of housing them, the cost of hours of work for the prosecutors to prepare cases,” he said. “Most addicts are indigent, so the state will have to appoint them counsel, and then you have probation and parole officers on the other side.”
There also is the cost of state Department of Human Services caring for the children whose parents are in jail, and the state’s cost of cleaning up meth labs.
One of the most compelling reason for him to shut down the labs, is meth’s effect on children, Fisher said.
“I know a Hinds County Judge who has handled cases where children are removed from the home because of drug use. He said that in all the times he has ordered children removed from the home, he has never had a meth-addicted parent petition to get the child back,” Fisher said.
The federal government, he said, is no longer paying to clean up labs, and has passed that responsibility to the states. In Mississippi, MBN is responsible for meth lab cleanup.
Fisher said the federal government has spent $75.4 million on meth lab cleanups in the U.S. since 2006.
“Nationwide, the problem can be fixed,” he said. “It may mean dealing with the smuggling of Mexican meth, but (dealing with smugglers) is easier to deal with than the danger of cleaning up a lab.”
Fisher said people across the nation are watching how Mississippi’s law is working, adding there is confusion over what drugs are included in the law.
“Not all cold medicine is on prescription,” he said.
He said there also is concern over the inconvenience of customers and pharmacists over the prescription requirements.
Keith Guy of Guy’s Pharmacy, Tim Stamps of Super D Pharmacy said they have not experienced problems with the new law. They said, however, that placing the once over-the-counter drugs on prescription has raised the drugs’ prices and reduced the options for customers who want something over-the-counter.
Given the choice between inconvenience or the meth problem, Fisher said, “I’ll take a little inconvenience if it will eliminate the threat to children and the horrendous effect of that stuff.”
