METH FLOURISHES DESPITE TRACKING LAWS

ST. LOUIS - Electronic systems that track sales of the cold medicine
used to make methamphetamine have failed to curb the drug trade and
instead created a vast, highly lucrative market for profiteers to buy
over-the-counter pills and sell them to meth producers at a huge markup.

An Associated Press review of federal data shows that the lure of
such easy money has drawn thousands of new people into the
methamphetamine underworld over the past few years.

"It's almost like a subcriminal culture," said Gary Boggs, an agent
at the Drug Enforcement Administration. "You'll see them with a GPS
unit set up in a van with a list of every single pharmacy or retail
outlet. They'll spend the entire week going store to store and buy to
the limit."

Inside their vehicles, the so-called "pill brokers" punch out blister
packs into a bucket and even clip coupons, Boggs said.

At the height of the meth epidemic, several states turned to the
electronic systems, which allowed pharmacies to check instantly
whether a buyer had already purchased the legal limit of
pseudoephedrine - a step that was supposed to make it harder to
obtain raw ingredients for meth. But it has not worked as intended.

In some cases, the pill buyers are not interested in meth. They may
be homeless people recruited off the street or college kids seeking
weekend beer money, authorities say.

Because of booming demand created in large part by the tracking
systems, they can buy a box of pills for $7 to $8 and sell it for $40 or $50.

The tracking systems "invite more people into the criminal activity
because the black-market price of the product becomes so much more
profitable," said Jason Grellner, a detective in hard-hit Franklin
County, Mo., about 40 miles west of St. Louis.

"Where else can you make a 750 percent profit in 45 minutes?" asked
Grellner, former president of the Missouri Narcotics Officers Association.

Since tracking laws were enacted beginning in 2006, the number of
meth busts nationwide has started climbing again. Some experts say
the black market for cold pills contributed to that spike. Other
factors are at play, too, such as meth trafficking by Mexican cartels
and new methods for making small amounts of meth.

AP reviewed DEA data spanning nearly a decade, from 2000 to 2009, and
conducted interviews with a wide array of police and government officials.

Meth-related activity is on the rise again nationally, up 34 percent
in 2009, the year with the most recent figures. That number includes
arrests, seizures of the drug and the discovery of abandoned
meth-production sites.

The increase was higher in the three states that have electronically
tracked sales of medication containing pseudoephedrine since at least
2008. Meth incidents rose a combined 67 percent in those states - 34
percent in Arkansas, 65 percent in Kentucky and 164 percent in Oklahoma.

Supporters of tracking say the numbers have spiked because the system
makes it easier for police to find people who participate in meth
production. But others question whether the tracking has helped make
the problem worse by creating a new class of criminals that police must pursue.

In the past, the process of "cooking" meth was often a one-person
operation, with producers buying as many cold pills as they needed.

Now, with laws that strictly limit purchases and record buyers'
names, meth producers recruit friends, acquaintances, strangers and
even their own children to buy pills.

The process, known as "smurfing," is not entirely new, but it has
come into wider practice over the past two to three years as states
have sought to limit the availability of pseudoephedrine.

Police and federal agents never expected that electronic tracking
would draw more people into the criminal enterprise surrounding meth.

"Law enforcement was surprised," St. Louis County Sgt. Tom Murley
said. "People that normally wouldn't cross the line are willing to do
so because they think it's such a sweet deal, and because of the economy."