Computer program cuts state’s meth labs

POLICE TRACK PURCHASES OF COMMON INGREDIENT

BY JIM BROOKS ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT - GAZETTE
02/04/2007

A computer program designed to track the purchase of cold medications that include the drugs used to make methamphetamine means North Little Rock detectives are investigating fewer methamphetamine labs in their city.

North Little Rock narcotics detective Tim Willis says the program - called LeadsOnlabs -is a way to combat “smurfing,” the practice of buying small amounts of medications at numerous businesses, as opposed to buying boxes of precursor drugs in one stop.

In most other jurisdictions around the state, pharmacies collect information on cold medication purchases. However, the information is not shared among businesses, and detectives have to go to the store to look at the information.

That’s what Pulaski County sheriff’s deputies did last month while preparing for Operation January Sweep, a series of raids aimed at methamphetamine labs in the north-central part of the county. Deputies seized two methamphetamine labs on Jan. 19, and early last week, a third lab was seized. Willis said the computer tracking of pharmacy purchases has not eliminated the methamphetamine problem in the city, but it has reduced it.

“We still have meth labs, but we find that most of the people are bringing [the raw materials] in from outside the city,” Willis said. “We used to see 15 to 20 people a day that would go and purchase from multiple stores. “Now, in a day, we might get three or four.”

Willis said 18 pharmacies are linked together on the system. “Once a person makes a purchase in any of the 18 stores, all 18 are notified in the system,” he said. So if a person buys two boxes of pseudoephedrine at a drugstore on McCain Boulevard and then drives a short distance to a pharmacy on John F. Kennedy Boulevard in an attempt to buy two more, his second purchase would be flagged in the system.

Cooper Smith, a spokesman for LeadsOnlabs, said there are 13 law enforcement agencies in Arkansas that subscribe to the service. In addition to North Little Rock, police departments in Sherwood, Maumelle, Jacksonville, Benton, Shannon Hills, Bella Vista, Quitman and Arkadelphia are online, as well as drug task forces in Hot Springs and Russellville, the state police, and the Arkansas field office of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. “Of those agencies, some cities have pharmacies online and others don’t,” Smith said. “The ones that don’t have pharmacies online can still access the system.”

Last March, North Little Rock police started a pilot program in which pharmacies in that city began feeding information about buyers of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine into a computer database. Pharmacies in Arkansas are already required by law to record the names of purchasers of the drugs, which are commonly used as raw materials for the manufacture of methamphetamine. But information about those purchases isn’t shared among pharmacies. Under the North Little Rock program, all information would be fed into a computer database to help police determine whether anyone is buying more cold medicine than can be used personally.

“Meth makers have found they can go from one store to another, buying two or three boxes at a time,” North Little Rock Police Chief Danny Bradley said when he announced the program. “There’s no way currently for the pharmacy to know what the pharmacy down the street is doing.” The department turned to LeadsOnlabs, which also markets the Leadsonline database system to police that tracks items sold at pawnshops, to administer the pilot program.

“This system is designed to simplify the reporting process for pharmacies, and to notify pharmacies when a prospective customer has reached the legal limit for purchases of these products,” Bradley said. North Little Rock City Attorney Paul Suskie said Arkansas Act 256, which requires pharmacies to gather the information, also allows the information to be gathered electronically.

In the LeadsOnlabs program, pharmacies “swipe” the magnetic strip on the back of a prospective customer’s driver’s license, gathering the identifying information. The pharmacy gathers information only on people trying to buy ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and phenylpropanolamine, the three drugs mentioned in the state law.

Willis said the pilot program went well, and several other law enforcement agencies are now participating in the system, including Benton and Maumelle police departments and the Saline County sheriff’s office.

The Pulaski County sheriff’s office is looking into joining up.

Law enforcement officials say the state law which put pseudoephedrine and ephedrine behind the counter has helped reduce the number of methamphetamine labs in the state. Most of the methamphetamine now in circulation in Arkansas is imported from outside the country, and much of it is higher-quality and more potent crystal methamphetamine manufactured outside Arkansas and smuggled into the state.

On Friday, the Pulaski County sheriff ’s office, assisted by several city, state and federal authorities, arrested four men and a woman on charges of distributing “ice” from two residences - one in southwest Little Rock and the other in rural Saline County.

Pulaski County sheriff’s office spokesman John Rehrauer said the change in state law has resulted in fewer methamphetamine labs, and the ones discovered are smaller than past labs.

Pulaski County sheriff’s Lt. Tim Hibbs’ patrol district includes the site of three recent methamphetamine lab raids.

“Some people are making enough for their personal use and selling enough to make their money back,” Hibbs said. “So, in effect, they’re getting free drugs.”

(LEADSONLABS CLIENT – NORTH LITTLE ROCK, AR POLICE DEPT.)