If Georgia lawmakers are looking for guidance on how to curb meth production, they need only look beyond their backyard.
Three bills under consideration in the General Assembly would use an electronic database to track sales of pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in meth, or make the drug harder to get by restricting sales to pharmacies. Elements of those ideas have already been incorporated into laws in other states, with mixed results.
Pseudoephedrine is a nasal and sinus decongestant used in popular cold and allergy medications like Sudafed and Claritin-D. It's available at both pharmacies and convenience stores in Georgia.
The driving force behind proposals to track or restrict pseudoephedrine purchasing is the troubling nationwide uptick in methamphetamine labs over the past three years.
Meth lab seizures in Georgia rose to 257 from 167 -- a 54 percent increase over the past three years. Nationally, meth lab seizures climbed 61 percent between 2007 and 2009, the latest year for which the Drug Enforcement Administration has complete records.
DEA spokeswoman Barbara Carreno said there are two reasons for the increase.
People referred to as "smurfers" started recruiting friends, family members, college students, even homeless people to go from store to store using fake IDs to get around the Combat Meth Act. That's a federal law that limits the amount of pseudoephedrine an individual can purchase to 3.6 grams a day and no more than 9 grams a month. It also requires buyers to show identification and sign a log book.
The development of a "one-pot method" that allows meth cooks to brew small batches in a soda bottle also has driven up the number of meth lab seizures in recent years, Carreno said.
As a result, meth-making from coast to coast has skyrocketed. Now, many states are experimenting with measures to thwart pseudoephedrine smurfers.
Restricting access
One way to slow meth production is by limiting access to pseudoephedrine.
Senate Bill 93 would classify it as a Schedule 5 exempt drug, which would make it available only in pharmacies. The bill is slated to be debated on the Senate floor Monday. Sen. Buddy Carter, R-Pooler, who sponsored the bill, thinks the benefits of stopping meth manufacturing outweigh the loss of convenience for legitimate cold and allergy sufferers.
Oklahomans tried that tactic first in 2004. It worked -- prompting a 70 percent drop in meth labs in that state within three months. But the dampening effect didn't last long. Oklahoma's meth problem has exploded in recent years. The number of meth lab seizures has soared 450 percent, to 818 in 2010 from 148 in 2007. Meth-makers learned to circumvent the law.
"We were very encouraged with what we saw for the first five years, but now the concern is we need to do something else," said Mark Woodward, spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. "Putting it in pharmacies isn't enough."
Woodward said Oklahoma legislators are considering following in the footsteps of Oregon and Mississippi by making pseudoephedrine a prescription drug. Those states have seen dramatic declines in meth-making.
In the eight months since Mississippi's law took effect last July, the state has seen a 68 percent drop in meth lab seizures.
Impressed with the swift turnaround Mississippi is reporting, many in the state and national law enforcement community favor that approach. The idea has its detractors, though, and is opposed by powerful consumer healthcare lobbying groups. The concept has not been floated in Georgia this year, although 16 other states are considering it.
State Rep. Jay Neal, R-LaFayette, is against placing any additional obstacles on buying pseudoephedrine, including the pharmacy-only limitation proposed in the Senate. He has heard from constituents who are adamant the medicine relieves their allergy symptoms in the pollen-heavy Georgia springs. “We don’t want to punish people who are using the medicine for appropriate reasons,” said Neal.
Tracking purchases
Neal has put forth one of two proposals pending in the House that would track pseudoephedrine purchases using an electronic database.
House Bill 437 would make Georgia the 11th state to adopt an electronic tracking system NPLEx, or National Precursor Log Exchange. The system, called "Georgia Meth Watch," would be administered by the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators and funded by the companies that manufacture pseudoephedrine.
Georgia Meth Watch would allow pharmacists to access real-time information about customers, so they know when the person in front of them just bought Sudafed down the street. Pharmacists would get a "stop sale" notice when customers have already surpassed the legal limit.
A similar tracking system did not deter meth-makers in Kentucky, which was one of the first states to implement such a program.
In June 2008, Kentucky came online with a state-of-the-art, real-time electronic tracking system for pseudoephedrine purchases called Meth Check. The NPLEx system being proposed in Georgia under HB 437 is based upon Kentucky's model. But law enforcement officials in Kentucky say the program isn't working. Smurfers are still getting around it by recruiting helpers to buy cold pills.
Over the past two years since the system has been in place, the number of meth lab seizures rose to a record-breaking 1,080 last year from 428, according to Trooper John Hawkins, spokesman for the Kentucky State Police.
A second type of electronic monitoring system proposed in Georgia under House Bill 184 would create a prescription drug monitoring program administered by the State Board of Pharmacy. If lawmakers in the Senate vote to make pseudoephedrine a Schedule 5 drug,sales of medicines like Sudafed and Claritin-D would be tracked by that program.
However, the main goal of the system is to prevent people from abusing prescription drugs, said Tom Weldon, R-Ringold, who is the bill's main sponsor.
“Our goal has always been to stop the prescription abuse, the ‘Georgia Cocktail’ of OxyContin, Xanax and Soma,” Weldon said of the mixture of pain and anti-anxiety medications with muscle relaxers.
Law enforcement officials in Oklahoma and Mississippi say that electronic tracking has not been a deterrent for meth-makers, no matter who administers the program. Oklahoma's federally funded prescription monitoring system has blocked 70,000 sales, but its meth lab seizures are still up by 450 percent.
"It's not working," said Woodward. "What meth cooks are doing is they are sending in other people who are only buying a small amount. No tracking system is going to stop them from recruiting homeless people or college kids."
Georgia lawmakers have until next Wednesday, Crossover Day, to approve the measures in the House or Senate if they are to have any hope of passing this session.
Staff writer Christopher Quinn contributed to this report.
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