POLICE PLEASED METH BILL SIGNED

Methamphetamine has become such a problem in Mississippi it warranted
its own bill, which was signed by Gov. Haley Barbour on Thursday.

House Bill 607 requires retailers to store cold medicines containing
pseudoephedrine or ephedrine in locked display cases, behind the
counter, within 30 feet of a store cashier or under video
surveillance.

The bill also limits the amount of the cold tablets sold to a customer
to no more than two packages per transaction or six grams of
pseudoephedrine or ephedrine.

Cleveland Police Chief Drew Warren said on Tuesday that local pharmacy
store employees are tuned into the covert operations of meth making.

In fact, Kroger has locked away pseudoephedrine and ephedrine pills
for "many, many years."

Kroger is very conscientious about materials which could be utilized
for drug use, including "rolling papers" that may be used to smoke
marijuana. The store doesn't stock "rolling papers."

"When it started to be an epidemic we started locking the cold pills
away," said Glenn Hill, the store manager in Cleveland.

If someone needs medicine for the actual problem of a cold and sinus,
they will have to go to the pharmacist.

Most pharmacists say that if someone really needs the product for its
created purpose, they won't have a problem with the extra step.

While law enforcement officers are glad to see the bill become a law,
they also know that those who really want the pills will try and
figure out a way to get them.

"I think the bill is going to work," said Charles "Buster" Bingham,
the narcotics investigator with the Cleveland Police Department. "It
will help out law enforcement tremendously. It can't do anything but
help us out."

Bingham said it won't stop those who want to make meth, but it will
make it more difficult for them to acquire some of the
ingredients.

On Tuesday, before the bill was ever signed, two men were arrested
after a high-speed car chase that began at Wal-Mart. Danny Campbell,
of Lyon and Carl Burleson, 30, of Clarksdale, were charged with
possession of precursors with the intent to manufacture meth.

The Cleveland Police Department responded to a call that a man was
possibly stealing pseudoephedrine pills. The man was in the outside
parking lot, and was acting strangely. He appeared to be cutting off
the safety belts in the shopping carts.

The men drove off as the police attempted to stop them, and during the
chase Burleson and Campbell threw suspected precursor materials for
making meth out of the car.

That was the most recent case, but the drug task force of Bingham and
Narcotics Investigator Joe Smith with the Bolivar County Sheriff's
Department, stay busy year round with meth situations.

Last year the duo made 11 arrests in 12 days, a staggering ratio. Of
those, an arrest was made when a man and woman from Popular Bluff,
Mo., were arrested for possession of a precursor with the intent to
manufacture. The couple was detained at Radio Shack and were suspected
of shoplifting.

It's common for manufacturers of meth to go to other counties to buy
their precursors as they believe no one will know them and not think
much of their buying pseudoephedrine or other materials.

The very next night in Bolivar County, two adults and one juvenile
were also arrested and charged with manufacturing methamphetamine. The
group was in the process of manufacturing when the officers caught
them.

These are just three of the vast number of arrests made in Bolivar
County with methamphetamine involved. It's not that our local law
enforcement isn't making a difference. They take this very seriously,
but when one meth situation is taken off the streets, 10 more are
there to take its place. That's why "the meth bill" is so important to
law enforcement.

Meth arrests are common in the Mississippi Delta with all its wide
open spaces. Meth labs are typically "roaming labs" as the process of
making meth emits a distinct odor of annhydrous ammonia.

A typical crime scene when meth is concerned takes about 10 to 16
hours to process. Samples must be logged and photographed, and once
this is completed a clean-up crew must come to the site to dispose of
the hazardous materials.

Officers must expect the unexpected when approaching a crime scene as
the people who are under the influence of this particular drug are
paranoid, restless, jumpy and possibly have been up for days at a time.

The average person might think a drug user is not very smart, however,
some of the people who manufacture meth are actually cunning and
smart, according to Bingham in a previous interview.

They pay attention to what the newspapers say and what the police do,
and once the officers , they will change their modus operandi.

Bingham remembered the first meth bust in Cleveland, which took place
in a business called The Cable Guy on April 29, 1999. A meth lab was
being operated inside the business, which was a trailer one of the
employees was living in and using to manufacture.

Since that first incident with meth, the officers from both the
sheriff's department and surrounding city departments have had
extensive training on the subject through seminars, classes and - most
importantly - on-the-job training.

Officers must make sure they know how to handle all the components
used in meth manufacturing as there are substances, like acid and
certain bases, that shouldn't be mixed.

Bingham said they use protective clothing and gloves depending on the
situation. Those protective gears are vital when dealing with closed
quarters and the volatile chemicals.

They also use protective gear when taking samples of the precursors to
prevent chemical burns.

Officers use self-contained breathing apparatus, Dragen Pumps, which
test the atmosphere to see if it is safe for them, and also
combustible Gas Indicators, which lets the investigators know the
level of explosive limits of certain volatile gases. The Dragen Pump
has an alarm to show oxygen levels and the chemical level of possible
explosion hazards.

Police now have to be more than just an enforcer of peace, they also
have to be chemists and explosive experts.