LOOPHOLES SEEN IN MISSOURI METH LAW

Buyers Can Get Around Limits On The Purchase Of Materials Used To Make The
Drug, Officials Say.

Restricting sales of the key ingredient in methamphetamine -
pseudoephedrine - brought a decline in lab busts last year. But law
enforcement and government officials say there are loopholes in the law.
Statistics released in January by the Missouri State Highway Patrol show
that from July, when the law was enacted, to December, meth lab busts were
down 44 percent from the same period in 2004. Lab busts were down 49 percent
in mid-Missouri for all of 2005.

"Certainly it has been very successful," said Capt. Ron Replogle,
director of the Missouri State Highway Patrol's Drug and Crime Control
Division. The law makes it harder for meth producers to make large
quantities of meth because it forces stores to keep tablet medicines
containing pseudoephedrine, like Sudafed, behind the counter, limits
sales to adults ages 18 and older and requires sellers to keep a log
of all purchases. But the law doesn't require pharmacies to share
their logs electronically with other stores.

It doesn't require the same limitations for sales of liquid
pseudoephedrine, which can still be used to produce meth. And it
doesn't restrict Missourians from buying pseudoephedrine online,
meaning sales can go undetected.

"What they really need to do, in my opinion, is to real-time monitor
the pseudoephedrine pills," said Trooper Rich Ferrari, who is the
supervisor of the East Central Drug Task Force and has been busting
meth labs in Missouri for seven years. "There is really nothing that
is tying all the pseudodatabases into one huge database." The law
requires pharmacists to keep at least a handwritten log of all sales,
but law enforcement officials said they don't have the personnel to
review those databases beyond random checks or when suspicious entries
are reported. "That still doesn't stop you from buying two boxes in
Walgreens in Columbia and then going to Wal-Mart and buying two boxes
and then going to D&H (Drug Store) and buying two boxes and then
coming up to Centralia and buying two boxes," Ferrari said.

A law enacted in August 2003 limits customers to purchasing only two
boxes of pseudoephedrine at one time, but Replogle said he arrests
people who go store-to-store to buy the maximum number of boxes.

Called "smurfing," it's a way for meth producers to buy more than the
3.6 grams a day and 9 grams a month of pseudoephedrine permitted under
last year's law. Nine grams is about 300 tablets, and depending on the
tablet size, it takes about 500 to 600 pills to make an ounce of
methamphetamine.

"There is still a way to scam around the system," Ferrari said. Larger
stores and pharmacies, such as some Walgreens, Wal-Marts and Target
stores, keep electronic databases, but they are only shared within
each company. Wal-Mart established its own methamphetamine guidelines
in 1997, and Sgt. Shannon Jeffries, narcotics investigator for the
Callaway County Sheriff's Department, said pharmacists at the larger
stores would alert him of suspicious purchases even before Missouri's
law was enacted. State Rep. Bob Behnen, R-Kirksville, sponsored the
legislation in the Missouri House of Representatives last year. He
said that initially the legislation included a provision for a shared
database, but that was removed because of insufficient funding.

A bill recently introduced by state Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape
Girardeau, would create such a listing.

It would track sales of all Schedule II drugs, such as Ritalin,
through Schedule V, which includes pseudoephedrine drugs. Crowell said
that the bill would enhance last year's law, and he said it would make
it easier for law enforcement to cross-examine logs. "Do we put it on
pencil and paper or put it on a computer where it's useful," he said,
adding that some logbooks are filled with illegible handwriting. The
bill has yet to move to a full Senate vote, but Crowell said he hoped
it could be passed this year.

Liquid pseudoephedrine was not included in last year's law because it
is considered more difficult to use in meth production, but under
Missouri law possession of any amount of liquid or tablet
pseudoephedrine over 24 grams is considered intent to
manufacture.

"We haven't seen any liquid pseudoephedrine labs," Replogle said. But
he said since people have been arrested for having more than the legal
limit, it wouldn't surprise him to see a liquid pseudoephedrine lab
bust. As meth producers attempt to find ways to get around the law,
one loophole remains outside of Missouri's control: the Internet.
Current state law doesn't restrict the sale of pseudoephedrine online,
said John Fougere, press secretary for Attorney General Jay Nixon.
Unless the online pharmacy is in Missouri, state legislators are
powerless because only the federal government can regulate interstate
commerce. After several Midwestern states enacted laws intended to
curb meth production, meth producers started buying pseudoephedrine on
eBay, Ferrari said. EBay has since voluntarily restricted the sale of
pseudoephedrine products on its site, and the online pharmacy
www.drugstore.com has prohibited Missouri residents from buying
pseudoephedrine products from its store. Lesser-known Web sites sell
pseudoephedrine and will ship it to Missouri, but Replogle said it
would still be illegal for any resident to purchase more than 9 grams
in a month from an online store outside Missouri. Behnen said these
sales mostly go unnoticed unless arrested meth producers admit to law
enforcement officials that they bought the medicine online. Ferrari
said that, despite the loopholes, the law has been successful in
disrupting meth production in Missouri.

"It's a very successful law, and I am very grateful," Ferrari said.
"It really has helped us out." But as with any new law, he said, there
is always room for improvement. Pending legislation introduced in the
U.S. Senate and co-authored by Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., would limit
pseudoephedrine sales nationwide. Modeled after meth laws in Missouri
and other Midwestern states, it would limit the amount of
pseudoephedrine anyone in the United States could buy to 3.6 grams a
day and 9 grams a month.

Although the law would not establish a nationwide electronic database
to track purchases, pharmacies would be required to check IDs and keep
a logbook.

Behnen said that meth producers will always attempt to find loopholes
in the law, and he said politicians and law enforcement officials must
constantly be thinking of ways to make meth production more difficult
in Missouri, which still leads the nation in meth production.

"It will be a constant battle but the thing is that we make it tougher
and tougher for them each time," he said. "We have to be vigilant and
stay after them."