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Sunday, December 27, 2009
Ind. Law - "State hopes database will curb meth"
Angela Mapes Turner has a long story today in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette on planning for a statewide meth database. Some quotes:
Indiana’s methamphetamine problem continued to flummox law enforcement this year, as state police seized more meth labs in 2009 than ever.The agency’s meth unit hopes the launch early next year of a long-discussed database to track methamphetamine-related information will drive down the blight. The effectiveness of similar programs in other states is still being evaluated, however.
The Indiana Meth Intelligence System would put data from pseudoephedrine sales into a database searchable by law enforcement agencies. It will also track tips from the state police tip line and law enforcement officers. * * *
One key ingredient remains the common cold medicine pseudoephedrine, sold under the brand name Sudafed or a store brand. Since 2005, the drug has been kept behind pharmacy counters, and limits have been placed on the amount a customer can buy within a given time.
Pharmacists are required by law to take a customer’s information, but in most cases, that information has been kept in paper logs that officers must spend hours searching by hand, [Indiana State Police 1st Sgt. Niki Crawford, who heads the state’s Meth Suppression Section] said. * * *
If someone buys medicine for a cold or sinus infection, that information will not be available to law enforcement. Crawford said only sales deemed suspicious under the parameters of the program will be included in the database, based on state and federal law and a few other red flags, such as past methamphetamine-related crimes.
The program also aims to fight “smurfing” – when people who travel from pharmacy to pharmacy, buying up as much pseudoephedrine as they can within a short period. The database flags people who buy from different pharmacies during a short time and flags associates who might be working together to buy the drug, Crawford said. * * *
The database has been discussed for several years, and the need has grown during that time, police say. The number of meth labs found in Indiana increased by a third last year, the second-highest haul since Indiana State Police began tracking annual totals, Crawford said. * * *
Funding concerns held up the creation of the database, as did debate over what kind of database would be best.
Crawford said Indiana decided to use a program developed in Tennessee because it would cost the state less. All Indiana has to do is build the computer system, and Tennessee gives the program away, she said.
It has other benefits, too, in that any information on the database can be shared with other states that use the program, Crawford said.
Crawford sees that as an advantage over some of the for-profit databases that have been created in recent years. Kentucky uses a for-profit program called MethCheck, but the information MethCheck collects isn’t shared with Indiana.
In March, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear announced that some counties in extreme southern Indiana had agreed to a pilot program with Kentucky for free access to the MethCheck program for a year.
Similar to Indiana’s new database, MethCheck connects law enforcement with pharmacies’ pseudoephedrine log data electronically, according to Kentucky-based Appriss Inc., which developed the program.
In 2008, nearly a third of the meth labs found in Kentucky were in two counties bordering Indiana, the governor said at the time.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 27, 2009 08:19 AM
Posted to Indiana Law