The Myths Of Meth Tracking
Gary Gerard,
dumbhoosier.com
I guess you could say I was a little baffled when I read State
Sen. Carlin Yoder’s letter to the editor a week ago Friday in
the Times-Union.
In it, Yoder touted the merits of a tracking system for cold
pills containing pseudoephedrine. Yoder authored the
legislation that put the tracking system in place. The new law
limits consumers to 7.2 grams of PSE per month. You have to
show your ID. When you hit the limit the pharmacist turns you
away.
I wanted the legislature to forego the tracking deal and
schedule PSE as a prescription drug.
All the hubbub is because PSE is the key ingredient meth cooks
need to operate their one-pot labs.
Meth labs like the one that blew up in Whitley County, killing
a mother of two. Or the one that burned down a house in
Leesburg. Or the one that blew up in a car that subsequently –
ablaze – ran up on a sidewalk in Syracuse a couple of blocks
from an elementary school. The incident occurred just minutes
before school let out and the sidewalk would have been full of
kids.
I’ve met Yoder. He’s a great guy. He’s smart. He’s polite. He
researches issues thoroughly before making decisions. Overall,
I think he is precisely the kind of person we need in the
state legislature. And this is precisely why I was so
surprised by his letter.
It seems he’s parroting the tired, overbaked rationale of the
drug companies. And it doesn’t take a mental giant to see
through that stuff.
In his letter, he talks about how the new law has stopped
12,000 sales of PSE cold meds statewide during its first 30
days. It took effect Jan. 1. He adds that the system “also
provides law-enforcement with valuable information that helps
track down and arrest meth offenders.”
But here’s the deal.
Meth cooks have a small – and now growing – network of people
to buy PSE, called “smurfers.” Meth cooks also have a stack of
extra IDs. When a sale is stopped, the smurfer leaves the
store, goes and gets another ID and life goes on until he gets
stopped again.
Sgt. Nikki Crawford, who leads the meth suppression section of
the Indiana State Police, was quoted by the Associated Press
recently: “The smurf groups are just getting bigger,” she
said. “I’m already getting reports from our investigators that
the groups they’ve been watching for the last few months who
were three to four people are now six to 10 people.”
Kentucky passed a similar law a couple of years back. Kentucky
quickly became known as “smurfer heaven” with legions of
formerly law-abiding citizens willing to buy their limit of
PSE for a few bucks and sell it to a meth cook for hundreds.
Cops say somewhere around 50 to 60 percent of PSE winds up in
meth labs. The drug companies say that’s absurd and that it’s
only 3 percent.
Hmm. Let’s see. We’re told 12,000 sales were stopped in
January. We can be certain all those would have wound up in a
meth lab because only people in the business of cooking meth
go over the limit trying to buy PSE.
If 12,000 represented 3 percent of total sales, it would mean
400,000 boxes of cold meds were sold during January in
Indiana. That’s ridiculous. A major drug store chain reported
selling 4,000 boxes a month statewide a while back.
And remember, we’re only counting the 12,000 here. That
assumes that no other cold meds sold during January wound up
in meth labs. We all know that’s a false assumption.
So now we know – without question – that the cops are a lot
closer to being right than the drug companies.
And the cops say, nationwide, $600 million in cold meds wind
up in meth labs each year.
Frankly, this may be the best argument I’ve heard yet for
scheduling PSE as a prescription drug.
Oh, and that “valuable information” for the cops?
Not so much.
Crawford: “We have not found it helpful. I haven’t received
any records I can use from them yet.”
And even if they did, what in the world would the cops do with
it? Arrest the smurfers? All 12,000 of them? In one month?
There simply aren’t enough cops to track down all the smurfers
and even if their was, the courts would be clogged with Class
C misdemeanor cases.
Clearly, tracking PSE has major pitfalls which Yoder was
willing to gloss over. Clearly, scheduling PSE as a
prescription drug eliminates all of those pitfalls.
Yoder also made the following points.
1. Prescription-only status
would require working moms to take time off work, remove
their children from school, and pay a doctor’s co-pay, just
to be told their child needs cold medicine, which as good
moms, they already knew.
Bunk.
A. Anyone who has a relationship with a physician – which, as
good moms, they already do – can get a prescription called in
without an office visit. Especially for cold meds.
B. There are dozens of cold meds available that don’t have
PSE. They work fine.
C. PSE is not recommended for children under age 12. He’s
talking about teenagers, yet makes it sound like little kids
would be suffering.
2. Prescription-only status
would simply encourage meth dealers to steal physician
prescription pads, make copies, and write unlimited
prescriptions. These pads are not currently forgery proof.
Bogus.
If that was true, there would be legions of dope dealers
stealing script pads and writing fake prescriptions for
oxycontin, vicodin and tons of other narcotics. But
there aren’t because pharmacists can spot a fake script a mile
away.
3. The online tracking law
has only been in effect for one month, and the statistics
are compelling. We should give the new law a full year of
experience before judging it.
Really? OK.
So why after only one month are you telling us how great it’s
working?
Besides, we have no choice but to wait a year. I just
hope nobody blows themselves up while we’re waiting. But the
smart money says they will.
4. Oregon enacted a
prescription requirement in 2005 and meth production and
abuse remains a major problem there today.
Overtly and patently false. Oregon, from 2006 to the end of
2010, has realized:
100 percent reduction in smurfing.
96 percent reduction in meth lab incidents.
32 percent reduction in meth arrests.
33 percent reduction in meth treatment admissions.
35 percent reduction in meth-related emergency room visits.
These stats are from Rob Bovett, district attorney, Lincoln
County, Oregon. These stats and many more are available here:
http://tinyurl.com/7uuayrj
These stats have been independently verified and rated as
“True” by politiFact.com
Bottom line.
Making PSE a prescription drug won’t eliminate meth. It will
eliminate PSE smurfing and meth labs. By evidence so far in
other states, tracking won’t eliminate anything.
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