Ind. police hope new database will help fight meth

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Police hope a new electronic database for tracking sales of cold medicines that can be used to make methamphetamine will help curb Indiana's meth problem.

The database is expected to debut early next year, following a record number of meth lab seizures by state police in 2009. State police say the previous 2004 record of 1,115 meth lab seizures was passed this year by early December.

One of the key ingredients used in making meth is the common decongestant pseudoephedrine, found in cold and allergy medications like Sudafed, Claritin D and Aleve Cold & Sinus. Since 2005, a state law has put cold medicines with pseudoephedrine behind pharmacy counters, required customers to show IDs and sign a log, and limited the number of cold pills someone can buy.

Pharmacists are required by law to take a customer's information, but that information has generally been kept in paper logs that police must spend hours searching by hand looking for suspicious patterns, said 1st Sgt. Niki Crawford, who heads the state police Meth Suppression Section.

Police sometimes can spend eight hours investigating a pseudoephedrine violation that might turn out just to be a mother accidentally buying too much cold medicine for her sick children, she said.

The Indiana Meth Intelligence System would put data from pseudoephedrine sales into a database searchable by police. It will also track tips from officers and the state police tip line.

"It is going to make law enforcement more efficient in doing these investigations," Crawford said. She said only sales deemed suspicious will be included in the database.

That includes "smurfing" by people who go from pharmacy to pharmacy in a short time buying as much pseudoephedrine as they can. Crawford said the database will flag such activity and flag associates who might be working together to buy the drug.

The database is based on a program developed in Tennessee. It's been tested at two Martin's Super Markets, a small chain in the South Bend area. The company hopes to install the program in the rest of its 13 pharmacies by the end of the year.

Pharmacists who tested the program said it was less cumbersome than paper logs, said David B. Adams, Martin's director of pharmacy operations.