SOUTHERN ILLINOIS U.-AREA MERCHANTS JOIN WAR ON DRUGS

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Two recent arrests of suspected methamphetamine
manufacturers highlighted some surprising allies in the war on drugs.

Twice in the last month employees at the Carbondale Wal-Mart, 1450 E. Main
St., alerted police after customers attempted to buy large quantities of
pseudoephedrine. Wal-Mart, Walgreens and Kmart are among the merchants that
monitor purchases of the precursors for methamphetamine.

Unusually large purchases of such items as lithium batteries, Coleman fuel
and certain drain cleaners may also prompt a store clerk to refuse to
complete a purchase or even notify police. Besides their normal uses, these
items and others are used in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine.
Wal-Mart and Walgreens are both following a national corporate policy,
while other stores such as Kmart follow a local or regional store policy.

Wal-Mart and Walgreens have prompts programmed into their cash registers to
flag purchases of those items when they exceed a preset limit. As the
cashier scans the items, the computer tracks quantities. When the preset
limit is reached or exceeded, the cash register alerts the cashier. What
happens next differs between the two chains.

Terry Godwin, manager of the Carbondale Wal-Mart, said the cashier would
refuse to complete the sale, and store loss prevention officers would be
notified. Police are also notified, and because the store routinely uses
security cameras for loss prevention, images of the transaction can be
supplied to law enforcement.

"All of our cameras are digital, so if we know the time [of the attempted
purchase] we can find it quickly and show it to police," Godwin said.

Godwin said that if the customer has a legitimate reason for the purchase,
management can override the electronic block on the purchase. Consumers
rarely argue the point, though.

"We reserve the right to limit quantities, and it states that on the back
of our sales flyers," Godwin said.

Carbondale Walgreens' manager Joey Smith said if his store's registers flag
a purchase, the cashier calls a manager to handle the situation.

"We don't want to put our cashiers in an uncomfortable situation," Smith said.

Smith said the manager would confront the customer and explain the reason
the purchase was denied.

Walgreens cash registers are programmed by brand names, allowing customers
to make excessive purchases, sometimes by simply switching to a different
brand.

"They may get away with it a few times before the system catches on," Smith
said.

Smith said he has made the suggestion to have all antihistamines across
board added to the system. That idea is still pending.

Sometimes it still comes down to the human factor. Smith related a recent
incident where the same individual was coming into the store and buying the
same item repeatedly, in unusual quantities.

"We noticed the trend, and reported it to the police," Smith said.

Kmart assistant manager Nancy Ellis said her store has a similar policy,
without all the bells and whistles. Kmart has its cashiers watching for
anyone who might be buying unusual quantities of items that could used in
the manufacture of methamphetamine. The cashiers would refuse the purchase
and report the incident to store loss prevention personnel.

"It's not a corporate policy," Ellis said. "Stores in the region have set
their own policy."