PHARMACIES NOTED FOR HELP IN FIGHT

Target And Walgreens Report Suspicious Activity

GALESBURG - The Illinois State Police made 424 more
methamphetamine-related arrests in 2006 than in 2005, according to
state police statistics.

Trooper Nick Griggs of the Zone 4 Peoria Methamphetamine Response
Team attributes the 1,161 arrests in 2006 to a year-old state law and
cooperation from the state's pharmacies.

Griggs said cooperation between state police and pharmacies has been
enhanced by a law that requires stores to log customers who buy cold
medicines that contain pseudoephedrine, an ingredient in methamphetamine.

Monday, two Galesburg pharmacies earned a certificate of appreciation
from the Methamphetamine Response Team because of their work with state police.

Target and Walgreens on Fremont Street were each presented with a
framed certificate for going "beyond the extra effort," to report
suspicious purchasing activity or customers whose names match those
on the state police's warning list, Griggs said.

"They're just awesome," he said of the pharmacies. "They're really
going out of their way."

The methamphetamine response teams were established in 2005, but this
is the first pair of certificates given to outstanding pharmacies, Griggs said.

The zone 4 team is responsible for eight counties.

"We do spend a majority of our time in Knox County and in Warren
County as far as our department's concerned," he said, adding that
methamphetamine is more prevalent partly because methamphetamine is a
drug that originates from the west.

"Western Illinois and southern Illinois are main concerns," he said.

He said Iowa recently passed a law to use a dye in anhydrous ammonia,
a methamphetamine ingredient, making it useless for production.

"Now we're seeing the Iowa people starting to come to Illinois," he said.

The solution would be for Illinois to pass a law that would require a
prescription for pseudoephedrine, which is an over-the-counter drug.

"Without the pills you can't make methamphetamine," he said. "I think
down the road it probably will (pass)."