Retailers Recruited in War Against Meth
Four boxes of cold medicine and a suspicious store clerk put 27-year-old Suzett Calloway back behind bars.
Wanted for murder after her son died from injuries he suffered in an explosion while, police say, she and her boyfriend were cooking up methamphetamine in their home, Calloway fled Georgia. She eluded police for several days until she walked up to a checkout counter at a Wal-Mart in western Kentucky. She was carrying four boxes of Sudafed.
The sales clerk, on the lookout for customers buying ingredients that could be used to make meth, urged a Wal-Mart security guard to follow Calloway. After a stop for more Sudafed at a second retailer, Calloway was arrested.
She and her boyfriend are in jail awaiting trial on murder and drug charges; both have pleaded innocent.
*
‘You Can’t Hardly Do Anything’
Increasingly, police in several states are informally turning to retailers for assistance in catching meth makers cooking the lucrative and addictive drug in backyard sheds, motel rooms and vans.
“Without their help, you can’t hardly do anything about the meth problem, at the rate it’s increasing,” said Trooper Mark Applin of the Kentucky State Police.
Some retailers say they participate out of a sense of duty. Others do it to curb meth-cooking shoplifters who might buy one box of a cold medicine, only to steal three others.
Still others worry they will be forced to keep a buyer’s log or face other burdensome restrictions if they don’t do something to help, said Joe Lackey, president of the Indiana Grocery and Convenience Store Assn.
Not everyone likes the idea of police turning to shopkeepers for help. One civil rights advocate said using retailers to report shoppers could lead to abuse in evidence gathering.
“It’s probably not fair to the manufacturer, but what do you do?” asked Lou Watkins of Baum’s Market in Boonville, Ind., where the bulk of the cold medicine is kept behind the counter. “They steal more of it than they buy.”
*
Meth Is Called Poor Man’s Cocaine
Some call meth the poor man’s cocaine because it is a highly addictive stimulant that produces a euphoria similar to cocaine, but lasts longer--six to eight hours compared with 20 to 60 minutes for cocaine.
Unlike most illegal drugs, the products used to make meth are legal and easily available: cold pills, nail polish remover, rubbing alcohol, salt and batteries. The recipe is on the Internet.
The overhead costs are low: roughly $100 for a gram, about the contents of a sugar packet; $400 per ounce, with payoffs of $2,000 to $2,500 per ounce.
“The price of gold is about $320 per ounce. It’s worth more than gold on the streets,” said Det. Joe Moran of the Owensboro Police Department. “When you’re fighting those elements there, the addictiveness of the drug and the ease that the drug is made, it’s a doper’s dream.”
Nationwide, the number of so-called meth labs seized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration increased from 287 in 1994 to 1,837 in 2000, said Joe Long, a DEA spokesman. That does not include labs seized by state and local authorities.
Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Iowa are just some of the states where police are noticing an uptick in the numbers of labs they seize.
In Indiana alone, state police dismantled six meth labs in 1995 and 681 in 2001. In Kentucky, that number rose from 268 last year compared with just six in 1996.
In street lingo, those who drive from store to store buying or shoplifting meth ingredients are “P and B” people -- pill and lithium battery buyers.
To cut off the “P and B” people, police in Kentucky and Indiana say they had to turn to retailers.
They distributed fliers listing meth ingredients and asked store operators to report license plate numbers of suspicious-looking customers. In Columbus, Ind., a Wal-Mart employee in March reported that a customer had attempted to shoplift three boxes of cold medicine as he purchased rubber gloves and coffee filters.
Police searching the 41-year-old man’s car found a “meth lab” inside it -- along with 1,100 cold medicine tablets, Columbus police Sgt. Matt Myers said.
“That is one that would not have been solved if the Wal-Mart employee had not caught him shoplifting and called it in,” Myers said.
Employees at Wal-Mart’s 2,700 stores are encouraged to help police, said Rob Phillips, a spokesman at the company’s Bentonville, Ark., headquarters. The store limits the sale of cold medicines and some diet supplements to three boxes.
“It’s not about sales,” Phillips said. “It’s doing what’s right.”
*
‘They’re Building and Compiling Evidence’
If retailers are reporting suspicious-looking people to authorities, there is potential for abuse, said John Krull, executive director of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union in Indianapolis.
“If you’ve got a pharmacist who’s got a grudge, it creates an opportunity, obviously,” Krull said. “I’m sure the police will tell you they’re only asking them to be informants, but they’re building and compiling evidence.”
Carl Johnson, director of government relations for Sudafed manufacturer Pfizer Inc., said the company supports allowing consumers to buy a maximum of three boxes of cold medicine.
But it does not back placing cold medicine behind a counter.
“It’s really outrageous that the illegal activities of these illicit drug manufacturers and dealers are really turning good medicines into something quite the contrary,” said Bob Fauteux, a Pfizer spokesman. In the process, he said, they are making it increasingly difficult for consumers with legitimate needs for the products to purchase them.
