IODINE REGULATION MAY CUT METH PRODUCTION

RUPERT -- What's the difference between someone in a Ford pickup buying
iodine and someone in a Nissan Sentra?

Chances are the person in the Nissan Sentra is buying the iodine to make
methamphetamine, Minidoka County Prosecuting Attorney Rick Bollar says.

Minidoka County commissioners are considering an ordinance which would
establish reporting requirements for the sale of iodine at a 7 percent or
higher concentration. Bollar said the county currently requires iodine
sales be reported, but there are no penalties for failing to report those
sales.

County officials have used information about iodine buyers to conduct
criminal checks on atypical buyers, Bollar said. There is a difference in a
local farmer purchasing three ounces of iodine and an out-of- towner buying
four gallons.

"It's the ones that don't make sense to us we're taking a look at," said
Minidoka County Sheriff's Lt. Dan Kindig.

Southern Idaho, including Mini-Cassia, has experienced an influx of people
from Utah coming to the area to purchase iodine in its higher
concentrations, which can be used to make methamphetamine, Bollar said.
Utah restricts the quantity of iodine people can buy, and meth
manufacturers have to go somewhere else.

"We're just one of the stops along the way," Bollar said.

Bollar shared a story about some people from northern Utah who purchased
large quantities of iodine in the morning then came back in the afternoon
for more. Law enforcement personnel already had run a criminal check and
knew the person driving the car had a suspended license. They found meth in
his car, which he was reportedly delivering.

Kindig said the sheriff's office used information from an iodine sale to
bust a meth lab in Utah a month ago.

The new reporting method will require new forms which ask for a little more
information than is now required, Bollar said, but it should not be much
more work than the current reporting system.

Law enforcement officials will visit businesses and pick up the information
periodically. If officers don't come by and ask for it, the business owner
does not have to take it anywhere. The information just needs to be
recorded, Bollar said. Kindig said officials try to pick up the information
about once a week.

The proposed ordinance would make it a misdemeanor for a vendor of iodine
to not gather the information or not give the information to law
enforcement agencies.

Wayne Smith, manager at Cenex in Rupert, said his store already operates a
reporting program similar to what the county is proposing. Cenex does not
sell iodine at the 7 percent or higher concentrations to people without
proper identification. They must show a driver's license and have a valid
address and phone number.

People from northern Utah came to buy iodine quite often for a while, Smith
said. The people from the area knew they would be reported. Less such
activity has been happening lately.

"We know pretty much who's buying it and using it legitimately," Smith said.

If a "whacked-out" guy comes in asking for gallons of iodine, Smith said,
it's a pretty sure bet he's not using it for agricultural purposes.

Jeff Heins, a veterinarian at the Rupert Animal Clinic, said he typically
sells the iodine in question in a pint quantity, not gallon. He said it is
mostly used for treating the navel of a newborn horse or calf and "a little
bit goes a long ways."

Regular Cenex customers understand the situation and aren't bothered when
asked to show identification, Smith said. There have been occasions of
non-regular customers being delayed, while officials check their
information. Some have become irritated and left without making a purchase.
But Smith said he wasn't too concerned about those customers becoming
irritated if he keeps a meth ingredient out of the hands of a drug maker.

Letters had been sent to businesses which would be affected by the
ordinance, Bollar said. He listed the C-A-L Ranch stores, Cenex, S and M
Iodine and two animal hospitals in the area. No responses have been
received, either positive or negative, he added.

Smith acknowledged he had received the letter, and Dorothy, a manager at
the C-A-L Ranch store in Burley who refused to give her last name, said she
had received notice about the proposed ordinance. However, she would not
talk about the ordinance or iodine sales in general.

"I don't want to comment," she said.