HIDDEN CAMERA SHOWED HOW PURCHASES MADE

The Evansville Courier & Press and its news-gathering partner,
WEHT-News25, conducted a hidden-camera investigation at Evansville
pharmacies to test whether Indiana's new meth law is working. The new
law limits customers to buying no more than three grams of
pseudoephedrine from one pharmacy per week, which works out to about
100 pills of 30 mg Sudafed or similar cold remedies. Pseudoephedrine
pills also are used illicitly to make methamphetamine. Purchasing
Sudafed boxes for the experiment was a volunteer, Shannon Dilbeck,
who is not a newsroom employee but works in the Courier & Press
marketing department. A Channel 25 photographer, Neil Kellen, wearing
a button-sized hidden camera, accompanied Dilbeck into the stores and
videotaped each transaction.

Over the course of Oct. 10, 12 and 14, Dilbeck entered stores 21
times, visiting 10 different pharmacies, including two locations each
from the Walgreen, Wal-Mart and Schnucks chains, three CVS locations,
plus one local independent, Oak Hill Pharmacy.

Each time, she tried to purchase 30 mg Sudafed. If a box of 24 pills
was not available, she asked for a box of 48. If Sudafed was sold
out, she requested a generic equivalent containing the same active
ingredient, pseudoephedrine.

At each visit, Dilbeck presented her own identification and signed
her real name to the pharmacy's log book, as required by the law.
Separate stores within the same chain did not question her multiple
purchases. During repeat visits, however, three stores recognized her
name in their logs and did not let her buy the medication.

By visiting 10 pharmacies two or three times each, Dilbeck was able
to obtain 19 boxes of Sudafed containing a 528 pills. That works out
to 15.84 grams of pseudoephedrine. That would be more than enough to
brew two batches of methamphetamine. (Other ingredients essential to
meth manufacturing were not purchased.)

Violating the law is a misdemeanor. Though more than a month has
passed since the undercover purchases, Dilbeck said no one from law
enforcement has contacted her or questioned why she bought such
amounts of pseudoephedrine.

The 19 boxes of Sudafed were not stored together but were kept
separately by different people. The medication was not opened or used.