METH LABS SURGE BACK

Three years after a new law provoked a steep drop in the manufacture
of methamphetamine in Mobile and Baldwin counties, the local labs are
making a comeback, according to statistics and law enforcement officials.

A state law that took effect in October 2005 limits the purchase of
medications containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, key ingredients
in the production of meth. Without those over-the-counter pills,
authorities said, meth cooks had trouble amassing the components they
need to make the drug.

But investigators said meth cooks have begun to figure out how to
evade the law. Although stores are required to record the names of
people who buy medicine with ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, there is
no central database. As a result, Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran
said, pill shoppers discovered they could hop from one store to
another and avoid detection. Hundreds of people in Mobile County
appear to have bought far more ephedrine and pseudoephedrine products
than they are allowed by law.

"The meth heads and meth cooks have organized themselves pretty good
in doing pill shopping," Cochran said.

Methamphetamine lab seizures, which dipped from 48 in Mobile County
the year the law took effect in 2005 to 17 in 2006, climbed to 33 last
year. Cochran said the Sheriff's Office is running slightly ahead of
that pace this year, with 17 meth lab busts through the first half of
2008. That mirrors a similar statewide trend.

Narcotics investigators said the recent increase in homemade meth
comes at a time when imported methamphetamine has leveled off after a
dramatic spike that filled the void in the months after the law took
effect.

"The usage seems to have stayed relatively steady," said Capt. Steve
Arthur, of the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office. "If anything, it's
gone down somewhat, but I wouldn't call it significant."

Shoppers avoid detection

Alabama's law prohibits people from buying more than two packages of
drugs containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine at a time and limits
them to no more than 6 grams in a 30-day period.

The law also mandates that retailers place the products behind the
counter or in a locked display case, record all sales on video and
make customers produce photo identification and sign a form that
includes their printed names and addresses.

But Cochran said no one checked to make sure the businesses were
complying until his office obtained a two-year, $450,000 federal grant
and hired a retired federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent
to start an inspection program from scratch. Joe Bettner, whose title
is methamphetamine reduction coordinator, since has begun training 30
deputies to examine the logs of 94 pharmacies and more than 400 other
businesses licensed to sell over-the-counter medication.

Bettner said he quickly discovered compliance with the new law was
spotty or nonexistent. In some cases, he said, businesses did not even
keep the logs. In other cases, employees were lax about preventing
customers from making mass purchases. Some logs had illegible names
written in ink; on others, customers had signed Mickey Mouse and other
obviously bogus names.

"On convenience stores, when we first started checking, I could count
on one hand the number that were in compliance," he said.

Even when the stores did comply, Bettner added, the law provides for
no centralized data collection. Most of the chain pharmacies keep
electronic records that network at all of their outlets, meaning that
a customer who exceeds his limit of Sudafed at a Daphne Walgreens will
be stopped if he tries to buy more from a Walgreens in Mobile.

But CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid and other stores are not linked to one
another.

"He hits four pharmacies on one corner and no one will ever know - or
used to," Bettner said.

To try to put an end to that, Bettner has been building a database
from the sales logs at every pharmacy, gas station, convenience store
and other business that sells ephedrine and pseudoephedrine products.
The early results have turned up some 200 names that appear on the
lists of multiple pharmacies.

In some cases, those customers have bought more than 200 grams of the
products over the last six months - more than six times the legal
limit. Bettner said most of those "shoppers," as law enforcement have
dubbed them, either are tied directly to the manufacture of
methamphetamine or have found out that they can sell a $10 box of
Sudafed for $40 to $50 on the street. And since no one was checking,
they've been getting away with it, he said.

"They've been doing it unmolested," he said. "They've been doing it
with no problem."

Compliance improves

Bettner, whose background includes a stint with Drug Enforcement
Administration, said compliance among retailers has improved
dramatically since the beginning of the year. Authorities so far have
not leveled any fines. As a result of the inspections, Bettner said,
many non-pharmacy retailers have opted to stop selling pseudoephedrine
products.

Since the licenses are granted by the Alcoholic Beverage Control
Board, he said, violators risk losing their right to sell not only
cold medicine but also alcohol and tobacco.

"We are really careful about it, super careful," said Robert Dobbs,
the pharmacist at Skyland Discount Drugs on Government Boulevard in
Mobile. "It's extra trouble when you do sell it when you've got a
person who you know is a legitimate customer."

Dobbs said he declines to sell pseudoephedrine medication a couple of
times a week, although the number of suspicious people trying to buy
has declined.

"They don't come in complaining of sinus problems and asking a lot of
questions like a normal customer would," he said. "You can just tell.
You can't tell 100 percent, but you're very suspicious about it."

The Drug Enforcement Administration has named methamphetamine the No.
1 drug threat in Alabama. Highly addictive, meth can cause brain
damage, paranoia and psychotic behavior.

For a time, imported meth from Mexico largely had supplanted local
labs, officials said. Instead of a few ounces made by a local cook,
"superlabs" south of the border are capable of producing multiple
kilogram quantities of a pure form of the drug known as "ice."

Officials said nearly all of the imported meth in Alabama comes by way
of Atlanta, a major distribution hub.

Wade said dealers flooded the area with cheap "ice" to establish a
market and then began gradually raising the price. Methamphetamine now
sells for about $100 to $140 a gram, he said. Pill shoppers sometimes
take their pay in meth, according to officials.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gloria Bedwell said authorities have noticed a
recent decrease in the quality of imported "ice" as dealers have
"cut," or diluted, the drug to stretch the supply and boost profit.

Wade praised the pseudoephedrine law and said it has had a major
impact even though labs appear to be on the rise again. He said the
DEA has noticed the increase, with federal agents responding to 13
requests to clean up active labs in southwest Alabama this fiscal
year. That is up from nine in all of fiscal year 2007 and the first
increase after three consecutive annual declines from the high mark of
61 in fiscal year 2004.

The difference, Wade said, is that the more recent labs are producing
much smaller quantities - a few grams rather than several ounces. The
reason is the manufacturers have to scramble to gather the raw
ingredients.

"You've got more people working harder to make less," he said.