RETAILERS HELP COPS SPOT SIGNS OF METH

Businesses Give Police Tips About Those Buying Large Amounts Of Ingredients
Used In Making The Drug

As methamphetamine production becomes increasingly popular in southcentral
Kentucky, law enforcement agencies are depending on alert retailers to help
fight the proliferation of the popular drug. "Retailers are giving quite a
bit of help," said Capt. Wayne Mayfield, commander of west section of the
Kentucky State Police Drug Enforcement Office in Bowling Green. "... That's
part of the process of trying to combat this growing problem."

Illegal methamphetamine is manufactured in clandestine laboratories
nationwide. The drug is easy to manufacture and is made from common
household ingredients.

Components used to make meth include coffee filters, lithium batteries,
rock salt, lye and common cold remedies that contain ephedrine or
pseudoephedrine. Purchased alone, those products amount to nothing more
than items on a shopping list. But purchased together or in large
quantities can, and often does, mean that the intended purpose is illegal,
Mayfield said.

It is the easy accessibility of the items used to manufacture the drug that
have contributed to its popularity, he said.

"This problem has not nearly reached its apex," Mayfield said.

In Bowling Green, the number of clandestine labs uncovered by police has
skyrocketed. There were none in 1997 and 1998, three in 1999, 14 in 2000,
36 labs last year and 27 labs so far this year, said Tommy Loving, director
of the Bowling Green-Warren County Drug Task Force.

With the ingredients so easily available and the drug's popularity
increasing, police - who are limited in numbers - rely on retailers to tip
them off to anyone buying large quantities of items used to make meth,
especially large quantities of pseudoephedrine.

"If not for the retailers watching out for us, we're limited to undercover
investigations. There's no way we can do the (necessary number) of the
investigations to combat this problem ourselves," Mayfield said.

Many Bowling Green retailers, including Wal-Mart, Kmart, Dollar General and
even family owned drug stores, either limit the sale of pseudoephedrine or
have removed it from their shelves altogether, replacing it with a sign
telling customers that they have to ask for the drug in order to purchase it.

"The biggest help they're providing us is many of them are putting Sudafed
behind the counter so that you have to ask for it," Loving said. "Many more
of the merchants ... are at least limiting the quantities that they sell."

Retailers locally started working to combat the problem within the last
year and a half.

Dollar General removed certain cold medicines from their shelves. People
wanting to buy those items have to ask for them. Kmart locally has the same
policy.

"Ever since we realized that there was a problem, we're doing everything we
can to make sure we're not contributing to it," said pharmacist Greg Hines,
owner of Hines Pharmacy in Sugar Maple Square.

Hines limits the sale of Sudafed to one box per customer.

Wal-Mart has a nationwide policy of limiting the sale to three boxes per
customer, company spokesman Rob Phillips said. That policy was enacted
about 18 months ago.

"We put it in place company-wide in an effort to cooperate with law
enforcement officials to make it more difficult for criminals to
manufacture methamphetamine," Phillips said.