MethShield™

Kansas program monitors pharmacies for meth abuse

Summary

• MethShield launched in Kansas
• Determined drug runners have found ways around earlier less effective prevention systems
• Increase in number of meth labs after brief respite mean that launch of proven performer MethShield is a timely solution

WICHITA, Kan. — A Web-based pharmacy monitoring program is being launched this week in Kansas as law enforcement officials battle a rise in meth labs across the state.

 

About 128 pharmacies in 62 counties will participate in the 12-month pilot program, dubbed MethShield.

 

The program will allow the pharmacies to immediately report sales of medications that can be used to make meth.

 

"Meth continues to just be a terrible problem for Kansas," said Jeff Brandau, a special agent in charge for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. "We are just inundated."

 

The agency found 97 meth labs through July, matching the total for all of 2007. The figure is still below numbers of just a few years ago, but authorities say it marks a troubling turnaround.

 

"It's a progression of people learning how to bypass the safeguards we have put in place" through laws limiting how much pseudoephedrine can be bought within a day or a month, Brandau said.

 

The written logbook system now used to track those sales does not allow for sharing real-time information between pharmacists and law enforcement authorities.

 

"We don't even know if they went across the street or on down the road" to buy more pseudoephedrine, said Mike Dandurand, owner of Dandurand's Piccadilly Pharmacy in Wichita.

 

"That's going to change." If a customer has bought medication containing pseudoephedrine at one pharmacy and then tries to buy more elsewhere, MethShield will alert the second pharmacy.

 

The pharmacist can stop the transaction if a purchase exceeds the legal limit, Brandau said. KBI agents will also monitor those sales, he said. MethShield is the domestic version of a nationwide electronic log system first developed in Australia.

 

Meth lab numbers in the Australian state of Queensland - roughly twice the size of Texas, with a population of 4.2 million - fell 37 percent in the first year the electronic system was used there, said Shaun Singleton, the company's chief executive officer. Singleton said he came to the Midwest to demonstrate the system's value because the meth problem in the Midwest mirrored what was happening in Queensland. The company is paying for the installation and operation of the pilot program.

If the state wants to continue using the program after the pilot test, it will need to find funding for it, Brandau said.

From Fort Mills Times (South Carolina) August 14, 2008 

Tracking meth ingredient could get easier

Software program would help officials monitor sales of pseudoephedrine

By Jon Ruhlen - The Hutchinson News - jruhlen@hutchnews.com

In April, a check of pharmacy logs in Reno County netted more than 30 arrests, one meth lab bust and a handful of felony convictions.

Detectives were enforcing the Sheriff Matt Samuels Act of 2005, which makes it a crime to purchase more than a certain amount of pseudoephedrine - one of the main ingredients in methamphetamine.

However, the enforcement is time-consuming. Reno County Sheriff's Detective Howard Shipley said at the time that gathering the data from each pharmacy's handwritten logs, inputting it on a database, cross-referencing the information and obtaining warrants based on the results required the full-time attention of at least one detective on the Reno County-Hutchinson Drug Enforcement Unit, with additional help from other officers when they were available.

A new software program, being implemented on a pilot basis throughout western Kansas, is designed to address that issue. Last week, officials from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Kansas Board of Pharmacy and an Australian software company demonstrated a program called MethShield at a press conference in Wichita.

MethShield was designed to address a similar problem in Australia.

"That's what used to happen, and this system makes that all go away," said MethShield CEO Shaun Singleton in a phone interview after the conference.

Singleton said the Web-based program allows pharmacists and law enforcement to track sales of pseudoephedrine products in real time and can send automated alerts to officials when a customer reaches a specified limit.

"The pharmacists have to record all sales of this product. ... They're complying with the law, but they're just building up data in a lot of different pharmacies," Singleton said.

MethShield has been used on a trial basis in some Australian states for three years and has been used nationwide for the past year. Singleton said meth lab numbers in the Australian state of Queensland dropped by 37 percent in 18 months after the program was implemented.

After a 2008 effort to mandate a statewide electronic pseudoephedrine sales tracking system was defeated, lawmakers appointed a sub-committee made up of KBI officials, pharmacists and drug task force attorneys to research the issue and present a report in January 2009.

There are two pilot programs being implemented in coming weeks - MethShield, which will include independent pharmacies in every county west of Wichita, and MethCheck, which will be implemented in the six southeast Kansas counties that make up the Southeast Kansas Drug Task Force.

The companies have donated the equipment free of charge for the pilot programs in hopes of being chosen by the Legislature to implement a statewide system, said Jeff Brandau, special agent in charge of administration at the KBI. "They'll answer some questions for us at no expense to the state," Brandau said. "That's a nice opportunity for us that's not often given."

Both programs would cost the Legislature $400,000 to $500,000 annually to implement and maintain, Brandau said.

The programs have minor differences. MethShield will send alerts to law enforcement if a suspect is purchasing more than the legal limit of pseudoephedrine but will also alert the pharmacist making the sale, allowing him or her to refuse the sale.

MethCheck, which is offered by the Kentucky-based Appriss Inc., offers police real-time access to the sales information but does not provide a "stop sale" alert to pharmacists.

MethShield bought enough equipment to equip 150 stores - virtually every independent pharmacy west of U.S. 81. However, none of the chain pharmacies are participating in the project. "That's the other hurdle," said Mike Coast, a board member with the Kansas Board of Pharmacy. "It's fine and dandy when all the independents are in the loop, but we need to get the chain stores involved in the loop."

Representatives of the larger pharmacies have expressed a "wait-and-see" attitude to Singleton, which he said is likely because of a reluctance to take on added software in addition to the in-house software programs the stores already have.

Singleton said MethShield has the ability to share data with the existing programs, but the larger pharmacies will probably not get on board until the Legislature decides which program it may implement.

In southeast Kansas, the MethCheck program has not yet been implemented. Crawford County Sheriff Sandy Horton said officials will be meeting with pharmacy representatives later this week and will know then which pharmacies will participate.

Meth labs on rise again in Kansas

Meth labs on rise again in Kansas
BY STAN FINGER
The Wichita Eagle

Meth labs are on the rise again throughout Kansas, state law
enforcement officials said Wednesday, making this week's launch of a
Web-based pharmacy monitoring program all the more vital.

An estimated 128 pharmacies in 62 counties are taking part in
MethShield, a 12-month pilot program that offers real-time reports on
the sale of medications that can be used to make meth.

"Meth continues to just be a terrible problem for Kansas," said Jeff
Brandau, a special agent in charge for the Kansas Bureau of
Investigation. "We are just inundated."

The KBI uncovered 97 meth labs through July, matching the total for
all of last year. While that is well below the totals of a few years
ago, Brandau said it reflects a troubling turnaround.

"It's a progression of people learning how to bypass the safeguards we
have put in place" through laws limiting how much pseudoephedrine can
be bought within a day or a month, Brandau said.

Kansas uses a written logbook system to track those sales, which does
not allow for sharing real-time information between pharmacists and
law enforcement, officials said.

"We don't even know if they went across the street or on down the
road" to buy more pseudoephedrine, said Mike Dandurand, owner of
Dandurand's Piccadilly Pharmacy, 7732 E. Central. "That's going to
change."

If a customer has bought medication containing pseudoephedrine at one
pharmacy and then tries to buy more elsewhere, MethShield will alert
the second pharmacy.

If a purchase exceeds the legal limit, the pharmacist can terminate
the transaction, Brandau said.

KBI agents will also monitor those sales, Brandau said.

MethShield is the U.S. version of a nationwide electronic log system
developed in Australia. The number of meth labs in the Australian
state of Queensland -- roughly twice the size of Texas, with a
population of 4.2 million -- fell 37 percent in the first year the
electronic system was deployed there, said Shaun Singleton, the
company's chief executive officer.

The meth problem in the Midwest U.S. mirrored what was happening in
Queensland, Singleton said, so he came to the Midwest to demonstrate
the system's value.

"Kansas is by far the most proactive state in dealing with meth" in
the Midwest, he said, so MethShield is paying for the installation and
operation of the pilot program.

Should the Kansas Legislature choose to continue using the system,
Brandau said, it will need to find funding for it.

No chains are among the 128 pharmacies participating in the pilot
project. Mike Coast, chairman of the Meth Precursor Task Force for the
Kansas Board of Pharmacy, said he hopes to change that.

Walgreens has used an internal pseudoephedrine log for the past two
years, company spokeswoman Carol Hively said.

"Our log prevents customers from accidentally or intentionally buying
more than the legal limit, and the system is fully integrated
chainwide," Hively said in an e-mail. "If you go to a Walgreens in
Kansas and buy the limit, you would not be successful in crossing the
state line and buying more than allowed at another Walgreens."

The system does not receive information about pseudoephedrine bought
at pharmacies outside the chain, she said.

Dr Val Jones from revolutionhealth.com Interview

Click here to view the Dr Val Jones interview on MethShield.

MethShield™ arrives in the United States.

Kansas Pharmacy First To Use Meth Shield

MethShield™ arrives in the United States.

MethShield’s sister product nominated as finalist for coveted Australian Privacy Award

MethShield’s sister product, the Australia-based ProjectSTOP, has been nominated as a finalist in the Australian Privacy Commission Privacy Awards for its commitment to maintaining customer confidentiality.

The program, which was launched in October 2005, is the Australian equivalent of the MethShield project which will shortly be piloted in the west of Kansas

Project STOP was developed by The Pharmacy Guild of Australia in consultation with Australia’s Federal Attorney General and the Federal Privacy Commission.

This interactive process created a real time electronic logging program that not only effectively assisted in reducing the amount of pseudoephedrine being diverted into illicit drug manufacture, but ensured that the privacy of consumers legitimately purchasing products containing pseudoephedrine was protected.

It is this same consultative process that is currently being used to develop the final framework for the MethShield pilot, which is due to commence in August 2008

The Federal Privacy Awards, the most prestigious of their kind in Australia, will be announced in late August 2008.