METH LAW MAY STRAIN BORDERS

Authorities Fear Border Counties Will Become Focus Of Meth Activity

The methamphetamine legislation N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper
lobbied for was just five days old when he realized his state is
operating as an island.

Officials say the new law, aimed at limiting the purchase of meth
ingredients, has no major loopholes but one major pitfall - its
jurisdiction ends at the state line. Bulk purchases of some cold
medications are now illegal in North Carolina, but that's not yet the
case in Virginia and South Carolina, a difference that authorities
fear could make border counties, such as Horry and Brunswick (N.C.),
into hubs for meth-related activity.

"We would very much like our neighbors on the East Coast to pass
similar legislation to protect our communities," said Cooper, whose
state enacted its law Jan. 15. "There is always the chance for
criminals to cross the state line and get the main ingredient for
meth if that state doesn't have a tough enough law.

"We've already had a case where a criminal went into South Carolina
to buy [the medications] and then took them back to his lab in North Carolina."

That bust occurred Jan. 20 in Newton Grove, N.C., a town in Sampson
County, which had 11 busts in 2005. The small community is only about
120 miles from Horry County.

Capt. Ronald Lessard of the Sampson County Sheriff's Department said
informants told them the suspect was transporting large amounts of
medications across the border.

"I-95 would have been out of his way, so we think it was likely that
he was traveling down [U.S] 701 into the Loris area," Lessard said.
"I have no doubt we will continue to see this because they are going
to get it somewhere. Either they'll go to South Carolina or to Virginia."

South Carolina is considering similar legislation.

Legislated changes

North Carolina's new law is based on the model used by numerous
states around the nation, including Tennessee, Iowa and Oklahoma,
according to the N.C. attorney general. In Oklahoma, meth busts
dropped an estimated 80 percent after their law was enacted.

The legislation now makes it illegal for customers to purchase more
than two packages of any tablet, caplet or pill containing
pseudoephedrine or ephedrine - some versions of the popular cold
medication Sudafed, for example - in a single day and limits
customers to three packages a month.

Another restriction requires stores to move these products to their
pharmacies, which wasn't a problem for drug stores, Cooper said, but
was unpopular with convenience and grocery stores without pharmacies.
They are now forbidden from selling those products at all.

Some S.C. stores have voluntarily moved pseudoephedrine behind store
counters, including major chains such as Wal-Mart and Target.

"In a store our size it wasn't that dramatic of a change," said
pharmacist Joe Earnhardt of Seashore Drugs in Calabash, N.C. "We
haven't had any complaints from customers, but we have had lots of
questions - people wondering if we are still carrying Sudafed and where it is."

In addition, customers must be 18 or older to purchase the drugs, and
pharmacies must ask to see some form of government-issued ID and keep
a log of their purchase dates and personal information.

The state eventually hopes to log that information in a statewide database.

South Carolina's proposed law is modeled after that of its northern
neighbor and Georgia, which passed its legislation in July 2005. The
House passed a version of the mandate on Jan. 18, but Trey Walker,
chief executive assistant in the S.C. Attorney General's office, says
the bill probably won't be signed into law any earlier than this summer.

"It is now awaiting action in the Senate," said Walker, who is fairly
confident the law will eventually pass in some form. "Sometimes
things move quickly and sometimes they don't. It could be a couple
months. It has to go through some committees and then to the floor."

The main difference in the proposed S.C. law is that it doesn't
require businesses to have a pharmacy to sell the restricted
medicines, although they must keep them behind the counter. Walker
said the main sticking point in the advancement of the S.C. bill is
the inclusion of the logs.

Some legislators and store owners oppose keeping the logs or
collecting customer information in any way, a requirement S.C.
Attorney General Henry McMaster wants included.

Coastal cases

Although evidence of its existence has begun to surface, officials
say the full proliferation of meth has yet to reach the Carolina coastline.

In 2005, only one meth lab bust was made in Brunswick County. Police
usually demolish the lab and arrest operators in these busts. The
N.C. State Bureau of Investigation made 328 busts in 2005, a number
that has skyrocketed yearly since nine busts were made in 1999, the
first year such statistics were kept.

Although county-by-county statistics are not available in South
Carolina, Sgt. Mike Cannon of Horry County police said the county saw
just two busts in 2005. He added that no more than 10 busts have been
made in the past five years.

"We haven't caught the edge of the wave yet," said Cannon, who is
hopeful and confident that South Carolina's bill will pass. "I'm sure
it's there, we just haven't cracked the right organization yet that
would cause the dam to break.

"I think it hasn't filtered down here yet. I think if you drew a line
through the state in Columbia, the northern half of the state is
having more problems with meth. Down here the problem is still
cocaine and crack. That doesn't mean it's not here, just that our
arrest stats aren't that high."

The stats tend to mirror meth's movement eastward.

Because it is relatively cheap to make, meth became an alternative to
other drugs in the western states in the 1990s. It has spread to the
eastern states and is slowly moving toward the coast after making a
significant presence in the North Carolina mountains and the Upstate
of South Carolina.

Just one eastern North Carolina county (Sampson) had more than 10
busts in 2005, while 10 western counties made 10 or more busts.
Officials from around the S.C. Upstate made the largest meth bust in
state history on Jan. 22, netting 40 suspects who will face a
combined 92 charges.

S.C. response

Walker said the S.C. government is worried about the impact of the
N.C. legislation.

"The border counties of Horry, Dillon, York, Aiken and Beaufort are
concerns," said Walker, pointing to largely populated areas being fed
by major roadways. "We are concerned these border counties are going
to be overrun with meth addicts coming across the border to load up
on pseudoephedrine, whether they purchase it or steal it.

"That was a concern addressed on the floor of the House last week. We
certainly don't want South Carolina to become a state where
methamphetamine is readily available. That's not the kind of message
we want to send or the kind of state we want to be," Walker said.

Brunswick County Sheriff Ronald Hewett hopes a working relationship
with law enforcement officials across the border can help halt that spread.

"Anywhere you find methamphetamine you find violence," Hewett said.
"The offenders pose a threat to law enforcement and the community. We
hope to work closely with S.C. law enforcement agencies. All of us in
North Carolina would love to see South Carolina have the same sort of
restrictions, but that's not the case and we have to work with that."