NUMBER OF METH LABS DOWN, BUT MANY SAY MORE WORK NEEDED

Stacked on the table are pages and pages of pharmacy logs that track
the purchase of a key ingredient used to make methamphetamine.

The stack -- two months worth of pseudoephedrine logs from nearly 20
Scott County pharmacies -- takes Scott County Sheriff's Deputy Rob
Jackson four months to enter into a database and cross check.

A recent check of the records netted five warrants against people for
buying more than the legal limit of 7,500 milligrams of
pseudoephedrine in a 30-day period, a serious misdemeanor.

The Iowa Pseudoephedrine Control Law, enacted in 2005, requires
buyers to be at least 18 years old, show a photo ID and sign for the
drug. Pharmacies must keep medicine containing the drug behind the counter.

Police and state officials say the efforts of pharmacists and police
have cut down on the number of methamphetamine labs across the state,
a statistic they say is the most telling in the campaign against the drug.

"It has been very successful," said Gary Kendell, director of the
Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy. "It has caused a 70 percent
reduction in meth labs over a two-year period."

The problem is, meth users and meth makers are finding ways around
the law. They will visit several stores and occasionally go to stores
outside the county where they live. Because the state doesn't have a
centralized database, they can escape detection.

Officers have arrested people buying large amounts of pseudoephedrine
who have maps with store locations marked on them.

"There are ways around it," Jackson said of the pseudoephedrine control law.

Officers like Jackson aren't checking pharmacy logs every month,
something that requires a subpoena in Iowa. The Scott County
investigator takes about four months to enter and cross-reference log
entries over a two-month period. The log from one Wal-Mart Store had
207 pages. Quad-City Metropolitan Enforcement Group officers helped
with the most recent investigation, cutting down on the investigation time.

"We try to be as proactive as we can, but it can be time consuming,"
Chris Endress, a supervisor for the Q-C MEG, said. "It is worthwhile
to do an investigation."

Even when officers don't get many warrants, they do glean some
intelligence from the logs. They might find someone from out of town
buying large amounts of pseudoephedrine from several stores -- called
"smurfing" -- or see the same names making large purchases over
several months. An out-of-town name on the log might be worth a call
to a local police department to alert it.

Pharmacists also watch out for and give police the name of someone
who purchases large amounts of the drug over several months, Jackson
said. Three chain stores declined to make local pharmacists available
for comment.

Kendell's office has lobbied for a change, creating a statewide,
centralized database to act as a stop list for buyers. The Governor's
Office of Drug Control Policy submitted a bill to create just that,
but it failed to come up for a vote on the House floor after being
passed out of committee. Kendell and Rep. Lisa Heddens, D-Ames, who
managed the bill on the house floor, vowed to try again.

"We will educate legislators on this," Heddens said. "It is an area,
an issue worth re-looking at, based on what it does to the individual
and the family."

No one will say why the bill failed, but a fiscal note attached to
the bill shows that money is an issue. The note raises issues
involving start-up costs, maintenance costs and those costs being
passed on to consumers. A $230,000 appropriations bill was a
companion to the database bill.

Tom Temple, chief executive officer for the Iowa Pharmacy
Association, said his organization has concerns about a centralized
database. Chain stores link from location to location within the
chain, but not outside of it. Creating an additional database
increases the amount of work required of pharmacy employees.

Additional costs incurred by stores because of the database could
boost the price of pseudoephedrine-based products 10 to 20 cents per package.

The benefits outweigh the costs, Kendell said.

"It has really dropped the number of meth labs dramatically," he
said. "(This law) is something that needs to happen.

"By not passing the law, it allows the cooks to get pseudoephedrine.
If we have a centralized stop sale system, it will cut down on the
need to check log books."

[Sidebar]

Pseudoephedrine Control Law

What is it? Requires pseudoephedrine to remain behind the counter,
and buyers must be older than 18, have a photo ID and sign for the
purchase. A person can purchase 3,600 milligrams in a 24-hour period
and no more than 7,600 mg in a 30-day period. Violation is a serious
misdemeanor punishable by $100 fine for the first offense, up to $500
for a third offense.

Has it helped? The number of meth labs discovered across the state
peaked with 1,500 in 2004. A year and a half after the law was passed
in May 2005, the number of labs dropped to 334. The number of meth
lab incidents in Scott County went from 23 in 2004 to three in 2006.

Source: Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy