Fighting the Meth Epidemic A new program up and running in North Little Rock leads authorities to a working meth lab. A computerized tracking system informed police someone was trying to buy too much pseudoephedrine; a key ingredient in the making of meth. Thirty two-year-old Jason Morton and 36-year-old Tony Oswalt are charged with manufacturing methamphetamine. They were arrested last week in Lonoke County. Inside their home authorities say they found three working meth labs. According to North Little Rock City Attorney Paul Suskie, that big bust was thanks to their new software. Suskie says Morton bought his Arkansas State limit of pseudoephedrine at a North Little Rock pharmacy. Then, a few minutes later, tried to buy more at another location, but because of the computer tracking software he was denied. Despite being denied there, Suskie says he tried again at another pharmacy. Suskie says their new software tells more than just the pharmacists that someone is trying to buy too much pseudoephedrine, "It will immediately notify the police department that someone was trying to buy an illegal amount." Arkansas law limits the amount of pseudoephedrine you can buy. The problem is that pharmacies have no way to know how much pseudoephedrine a person bought at any other pharmacy because pharmacies don't communicate with each other. That's not the case in North Little Rock where your drivers license is swiped and your info is loaded onto a private website. Suskie says, "If we didn't have this system, it would take two or three days to go through the paper work from each individual store to realize someone was buying an illegal amount. If they are from out of town, by the time we notify local law enforcement, they have already cooked it and the lab is shut down. You can't catch them." Everyone in the city is logged onto that web site except Wal-Mart and Walgreens. And because of that, police say Morton was able to go to Wal-Mart to buy some more ephedrine. North Little Rock recently passed an ordinance making the software mandatory. A Wal-Mart spokesperson said they were originally concerned about privacy issues, but will now be installing the system. Every pharmacy in the city will have to have the system installed by the time the law goes into effect on October 1st.
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