- 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
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