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Bluelighter
Meth production surges in Indiana
Francesca Jarosz
Indy Star
3.8.09
Production jobs are flowing across the Mexican-U.S. border and into Indiana. Unfortunately, what's being produced is methamphetamine.
A clampdown by the Mexican government has reduced the supply of the highly addictive drug from a number of the so-called superlabs there. But it also has spawned a slew of new, smaller operations in Indiana and elsewhere in the U.S.
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Indiana State Police and other agencies uncovered 1,092 labs last year in the state, a 31 percent increase from 2007 and the second highest number since State Police began tracking the statistics in 1995. It also comes after sharp declines from the record 1,137 labs found in 2004.
"We believe we have a true surge. The numbers are going up for us," said T. Neil Moore, executive director of the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, which helps to oversee statewide initiatives that were launched in 2005 to combat meth.
Meth has been a prime target in Indiana's war on drugs for years, not only because of its drastic effects on users -- including memory loss and potential heart damage -- but because of the environmental contamination caused by its production.
The first national estimate of the economic burden of meth use released this year by RAND Drug Policy Research Center put the figure at $23.4 billion in 2005, the most recent year for which estimates could be made.
The labs' resurgence in Indiana is leading law enforcement officials and some state lawmakers to call for more stringent ways to prevent the drug's key ingredients from reaching criminals' hands.
That's what Mexico did. According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, the Mexican government in 2005 began placing increasingly tough restrictions on imports of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, common cold and allergy medicines that are key ingredients in meth. Then in 2007, the country announced a prohibition on pseudoephedrine and ephedrine imports by 2008 and a ban on the use of the drugs by this year.
The reduced availability of meth's key ingredients in Mexico has decreased the drug's production there, creating a void in U.S. markets. Small-time meth makers here are attempting to fill the gap and meet the steady and sometimes increasing demand for the drug.
In doing so, the meth makers have figured out ways to skirt state and federal laws.
Indiana's Methamphetamine Protection Act of 2005 requires pseudoephedrine and ephedrine to be placed behind the counters of retail stores and pharmacies or kept under video surveillance. The law also limits the amount of the drugs customers can purchase within a week and requires buyers to sign a log for the purchase and present a photo ID.
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But law enforcement officials say criminals have exposed a flaw in the law. A practice commonly called "smurfing" involves individuals or groups of people purchasing the maximum amount of the drugs from various retail outlets, and it's Indiana's biggest problem when it comes to fighting meth labs, said 1st Sgt. Niki Crawford, commander of the State Police's meth suppression section.
"They're going from CVS to Target to Walgreens, and they're buying the maximum amount at each store," Crawford said. "They've realized it's hard for law enforcement to keep up with them."
Officials in Indiana now are trying to close the loophole in the law.
Two Indiana lawmakers proposed bills this session intended to make pseudoephedrine and ephedrine available only by prescription. The House version of the bill, authored by Rep. Trent Van Haaften, D-Mount Vernon, had a hearing but died in the Public Health Committee. The Senate version didn't get a hearing.
Van Haaften's proposal received support from law enforcement leaders, but it was fought by some in the retail and medical industries because of the extra time it would take to obtain and fill a prescription.
"It would be harder for legitimate customers who wanted the medicine to obtain it," said Grant Monahan, president of the Indiana Retail Council, who testified during the House hearing.
But lawmakers such as Van Haaften, who served as prosecutor for nine years in Posey County in southwestern Indiana and saw the damage of meth firsthand, said it's worth the sacrifice to combat the drug.
"All of us end up paying for the cost of the meth problem," he said. "If you truly want to do something about it, you have to restrict ephedrine and pseudoephedrine."
In 2006, Oregon became the first state to make the drugs available only by prescription, and it has resulted in a drastic drop in meth labs, said Rob Bovett, legal counsel for the Oregon Narcotics Enforcement Association. There were 473 labs found in Oregon in 2003, compared with 21 found last year.
Law enforcement officials in the state say the drop in labs has allowed them to focus on investigating drug-trafficking organizations that also provide a source of meth.
Advertisement
In the absence of tighter legislation, Indiana plans to implement a new database where pharmacies could submit their pseudoephedrine and ephedrine sales, allowing officers to track purchasers whose high level of activity raises concerns. State Police, the Criminal Justice Institute and the governor's office have worked together to research the system, which could be implemented with about $100,000 in federal meth initiative grant money.
Moore said the database could be up and running within the year.
Unfortunately, that's too late for Mashawnda France.
The 32-year-old Indianapolis woman fled her Near-Northside apartment last month after a meth lab in the unit below hers caused a fire that destroyed the building. Without renter's insurance, France hasn't been able to purchase new furniture, and she and her five children have been sleeping and eating on the floor of their new residence.
France said she is thankful she survived but is devastated that a meth lab was the source of her trouble.
"There's no reason for people to be in this predicament," she said. "It disgusts me that (meth makers) have no regard for anyone else's life; all they see is self-gain."
Link!
Francesca Jarosz
Indy Star
3.8.09
Production jobs are flowing across the Mexican-U.S. border and into Indiana. Unfortunately, what's being produced is methamphetamine.
A clampdown by the Mexican government has reduced the supply of the highly addictive drug from a number of the so-called superlabs there. But it also has spawned a slew of new, smaller operations in Indiana and elsewhere in the U.S.
Advertisement
Indiana State Police and other agencies uncovered 1,092 labs last year in the state, a 31 percent increase from 2007 and the second highest number since State Police began tracking the statistics in 1995. It also comes after sharp declines from the record 1,137 labs found in 2004.
"We believe we have a true surge. The numbers are going up for us," said T. Neil Moore, executive director of the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, which helps to oversee statewide initiatives that were launched in 2005 to combat meth.
Meth has been a prime target in Indiana's war on drugs for years, not only because of its drastic effects on users -- including memory loss and potential heart damage -- but because of the environmental contamination caused by its production.
The first national estimate of the economic burden of meth use released this year by RAND Drug Policy Research Center put the figure at $23.4 billion in 2005, the most recent year for which estimates could be made.
The labs' resurgence in Indiana is leading law enforcement officials and some state lawmakers to call for more stringent ways to prevent the drug's key ingredients from reaching criminals' hands.
That's what Mexico did. According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, the Mexican government in 2005 began placing increasingly tough restrictions on imports of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, common cold and allergy medicines that are key ingredients in meth. Then in 2007, the country announced a prohibition on pseudoephedrine and ephedrine imports by 2008 and a ban on the use of the drugs by this year.
The reduced availability of meth's key ingredients in Mexico has decreased the drug's production there, creating a void in U.S. markets. Small-time meth makers here are attempting to fill the gap and meet the steady and sometimes increasing demand for the drug.
In doing so, the meth makers have figured out ways to skirt state and federal laws.
Indiana's Methamphetamine Protection Act of 2005 requires pseudoephedrine and ephedrine to be placed behind the counters of retail stores and pharmacies or kept under video surveillance. The law also limits the amount of the drugs customers can purchase within a week and requires buyers to sign a log for the purchase and present a photo ID.
Advertisement
But law enforcement officials say criminals have exposed a flaw in the law. A practice commonly called "smurfing" involves individuals or groups of people purchasing the maximum amount of the drugs from various retail outlets, and it's Indiana's biggest problem when it comes to fighting meth labs, said 1st Sgt. Niki Crawford, commander of the State Police's meth suppression section.
"They're going from CVS to Target to Walgreens, and they're buying the maximum amount at each store," Crawford said. "They've realized it's hard for law enforcement to keep up with them."
Officials in Indiana now are trying to close the loophole in the law.
Two Indiana lawmakers proposed bills this session intended to make pseudoephedrine and ephedrine available only by prescription. The House version of the bill, authored by Rep. Trent Van Haaften, D-Mount Vernon, had a hearing but died in the Public Health Committee. The Senate version didn't get a hearing.
Van Haaften's proposal received support from law enforcement leaders, but it was fought by some in the retail and medical industries because of the extra time it would take to obtain and fill a prescription.
"It would be harder for legitimate customers who wanted the medicine to obtain it," said Grant Monahan, president of the Indiana Retail Council, who testified during the House hearing.
But lawmakers such as Van Haaften, who served as prosecutor for nine years in Posey County in southwestern Indiana and saw the damage of meth firsthand, said it's worth the sacrifice to combat the drug.
"All of us end up paying for the cost of the meth problem," he said. "If you truly want to do something about it, you have to restrict ephedrine and pseudoephedrine."
In 2006, Oregon became the first state to make the drugs available only by prescription, and it has resulted in a drastic drop in meth labs, said Rob Bovett, legal counsel for the Oregon Narcotics Enforcement Association. There were 473 labs found in Oregon in 2003, compared with 21 found last year.
Law enforcement officials in the state say the drop in labs has allowed them to focus on investigating drug-trafficking organizations that also provide a source of meth.
Advertisement
In the absence of tighter legislation, Indiana plans to implement a new database where pharmacies could submit their pseudoephedrine and ephedrine sales, allowing officers to track purchasers whose high level of activity raises concerns. State Police, the Criminal Justice Institute and the governor's office have worked together to research the system, which could be implemented with about $100,000 in federal meth initiative grant money.
Moore said the database could be up and running within the year.
Unfortunately, that's too late for Mashawnda France.
The 32-year-old Indianapolis woman fled her Near-Northside apartment last month after a meth lab in the unit below hers caused a fire that destroyed the building. Without renter's insurance, France hasn't been able to purchase new furniture, and she and her five children have been sleeping and eating on the floor of their new residence.
France said she is thankful she survived but is devastated that a meth lab was the source of her trouble.
"There's no reason for people to be in this predicament," she said. "It disgusts me that (meth makers) have no regard for anyone else's life; all they see is self-gain."
Link!
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
But to make pseudoephedrine available by prescription only?
